Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2010
EF0 tornado, St Patrick to New Market, Minnesota, June 26, 2010
From St Patrick to New Market, this EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Scott County on June 26, 2010, touching down at 9:35 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 26, 2010
- Touchdown
- 9:35 PM CDT (02:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 9:39 PM CDT (02:39 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.9 miles (3.0 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Scott County
- Touchdown point
- 44.580, -93.435
- Lift-off point
- 44.585, -93.398
- Record number
- 1006262035-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A small thunderstorm complex in eastern South Dakota moved into west central Minnesota during the late afternoon hours of Saturday June 26th. This small complex of thunderstorms quickly became severe and bowed out across southern Minnesota during the late afternoon and evening hours. Numerous reports of high winds, large hail, and isolated tornadoes along the leading edge of this squall line/bow echo from far west-central Minnesota, near Canby, eastward across south central and portions of east central Minnesota, south of the Twin Cities. Flash flooding also became a concern as rainfall rates were as high as 1.5 inches per hour that caused several areas in southern Minnesota to have signficant street flooding that led to stalled cars.
The tornado struck several groves of trees, snapping some near the base. It also ripped the top of a silo, spreading tin into an adjacent field. A garage door was also pushed inward.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
24 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:11 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:02 UTC and running to 03:16 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:05 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | MPX |
| 00:00 UTC | 07:53 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | MPX |
| 01:02 UTC | 03:16 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MPX |
| 01:22 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MPX |
| 01:50 UTC | 06:25 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MPX |
| 01:51 UTC | 03:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MPX |
| 02:11 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | MPX |
| 02:42 UTC | 02:58 UTC | Tornado Warning | MPX |
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:58 UTC.
SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.
The air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
2.6 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. June 27, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1959 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -106 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2965 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 876 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -6 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 34 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.1
- Supercell composite
- -0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z
9.4 hours after it, 33 km from the path. June 27, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 153 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -181 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 190 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 548 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -8 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 87 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:32 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:02 UTC | TSTM WND GST 56 | 2 Nnw St Peter | Nicollet, MN | |
| 02:11 UTC | TORNADO | 3 W Heidelberg | Le Sueur, MN | DAMAGE SURVEY DETERMINED TORNADO PRODUCED EF0 DAMAGE. TRAVELED FOR 0.5 MILE TO THE EAST...DESTROYING TWO CHICKEN SHEDS...TAKING THE ROOF OFF OF ANOTHER SHED...AND DOWNING SEVERAL TREES. |
| 02:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Henderson | Le Sueur, MN | SCATTERED TREES DOWN. |
| 02:20 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S New Prague | Le Sueur, MN | DAMAGE SURVEY DETERMINED TORNADO PRODUCED EF-0 DAMAGE. TRAVELED FOR 1.25 MILES TO THE EAST...PARTIALLY REMOVING SIDING FROM HOUSES...SOFFITS...AND DENTING SEVERAL GARAGE DOORS. ALSO BROKE A COUPLE DOZEN TREES. |
| 02:22 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 4 W Belle Plaine | Scott, MN | |
| 02:27 UTC | TSTM WND GST 72 | Belle Plaine | Scott, MN | MNDOT RWIS ROAD SENSOR. |
| 02:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Cleveland | Le Sueur, MN | SCATTERED TREES DOWN. |
| 02:35 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W New Market | Scott, MN | AN NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM DETERMINED THAT AN EF-0 TORNADO OCCURRED. SEVERAL GROVES OF TREES WERE SNAPPED OFF NEAR THE BASE. THE TOP OF A SILO WAS ALSO RIPPED OFF...AND A GARAGE DOOR WAS PUSHED INWARD. |
| 02:44 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Waseca | Waseca, MN | |
| 02:55 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Morristown | Rice, MN | |
| 03:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Faribault | Rice, MN | POWER LINES DOWN. |
| 03:11 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Faribault | Rice, MN | WATER OVER CURBS. |
| 03:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Lakeville | Dakota, MN | TREE DOWN ON POWER LINE. |
| 03:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Burnsville | Dakota, MN | NUMEROUS STRANDED CARS LAKEVILLE TO BURNSVILLE. |
| 03:20 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Prior Lake | Scott, MN | EAGLE CREEK ROAD AND GRAINWOOD ROAD FLOODED CARS STALLED |
| 03:30 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Faribault | Rice, MN | WATER UP TO 2 FEET IN STREETS. |
| 03:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Sw Welch | Goodhue, MN | A COUPLE 4 TO 6 INCH TREES BLOWN DOWN...NUMEROUS BRANCHES TWISTED OFF TREE TOPS. |
| 03:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 Wsw Belle Plaine | Scott, MN | RETAINING WALL COLLAPSED CAUSING MUD AND LOGS ON ROAD |
| 03:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Belle Plaine | Scott, MN | ENTERPRISE AND HICKORY ROAD FLOODED CARS STALLED |
| 03:40 UTC | NON-TSTM WND DMG | 5 Sw Welch | Goodhue, MN | A COUPLE 4 TO 6 INCH TREES BLOWN DOWN...NUMEROUS BRANCHES TWISTED OFF TREE TOPS. |
| 03:50 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Bloomington | Hennepin, MN | WATER TO TOPS OF TIRES CARS STRANDED EAST OF OLD SHAKOPEE RD AND FRANCE AVE. |
| 04:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Shakopee | Scott, MN | CO RD 83 AND VALLEY VIEW RD CARS STALLED ROAD FLOODED. |
| 04:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | St Paul | Ramsey, MN | LEXINGTON AVE AND JULIET ROAD ROAD FLOODING |
| 04:30 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Bloomington | Hennepin, MN | NICOLLET RD SOUTH OF AMERICAN BLVD CLOSED |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 26, 2010
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 26 | 4:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Walsh, ND | 6.0 | 200 | |||
| June 26 | 5:27 PM CDT | EF0 | Hutchinson, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 5:47 PM CDT | EF1 | Marshall, MN | 3.0 | 100 | |||
| June 26 | 6:02 PM CDT | EF0 | Miner, SD | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 8:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Osceola, IA | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 8:15 PM CDT | EF0 | Osceola, IA | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 8:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Polk, MN | 8.1 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 9:11 PM CDT | EF0 | Le Sueur, MN | 0.3 | 25 | |||
| June 26 | 9:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Le Sueur, MN | 1.4 | 50 | |||
| June 26 | 9:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Faribault, MN | 2.7 | 30 | |||
| June 26 | 9:38 PM CDT | EF0 | Faribault, MN | 0.5 | 30 | |||
| June 26 | 9:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Faribault, MN | 0.8 | 50 |
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.