Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2011
EF1 tornado, Breckenridge, Minnesota, July 15, 2011
This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wilkin County on July 15, 2011, touching down at 5:32 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 of property damage.
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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- July 15, 2011
- Touchdown
- 5:32 AM CDT (10:32 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:35 AM CDT (10:35 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $5,000
- County
- Wilkin County
- Touchdown point
- 46.253, -96.522
- Lift-off point
- 46.248, -96.503
- Record number
- 1107150432-01
What the Weather Service recorded
The combination of upper and lower jet support led to some nocturnal thunderstorms across southeast North Dakota and west central Minnesota.
This tornado touched down in a farmstead shelterbelt just east of Lake Breckenridge and tracked near a second residence during its roughly one mile path. Some large trees were knocked down, a number of large branches were broken down and a few shingles were lifted off the house. A two cubic yard metal dumpster was lifted and thrown about 100 feet into a nearby ditch. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
20 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:12 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:51 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 08:00 UTC and running to 15:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:00 UTC | 15:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FGF |
| 09:50 UTC | 10:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 10:12 UTC | 10:51 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 10:47 UTC | 11:39 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 12:02 UTC | 19:31 UTC | Flood Advisory | FGF |
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 05:51 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.
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
10.5 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. July 15, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 4277 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 5185 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 763 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 180 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 197 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 4.1
- Supercell composite
- 19.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z
1.5 hours after it, 210 km from the path. July 15, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2537 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -168 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3423 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 680 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 185 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 165 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.3
- Supercell composite
- 4.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.6 K/km
The surface observations
Wahpeton (BWP), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:35 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 140° 8 kt | 1007.8 | ||
| 08:55 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 140° 9 kt | 14 | 1007.1 | |
| 09:15 UTC | 71.6 | 68 | 130° 9 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 09:35 UTC | 71.6 | 68 | 120° 9 kt | 14 | 1006.8 | |
| 09:55 UTC | 71.6 | 68 | 120° 10 kt | 15 | 1006.1 | |
| 10:15 UTC | 71.6 | 68 | 100° 11 kt | 20 | 1004.4 | |
| 10:55 UTC | 69.8 | 64.4 | 90° 10 kt | 23 | 1007.1 | |
| 11:15 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 11:35 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 360° 4 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 11:55 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 100° 3 kt | 1006.4 | ||
| 12:15 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 10° 4 kt | 1006.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:33 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:25 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 6 Nw Wendell | Grant, MN | VERY HEAVY RAIN AND A FEW QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL STONES. |
| 11:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wsw Wendell | Grant, MN | A POWER POLE WAS BROKEN DOWN BY FALLING TREE LIMBS CAUSING WIDEPSREAD POWER OUTAGES IN NORTHWEST LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP. |
| 11:32 UTC | HAIL 1 | Wendell | Grant, MN | |
| 12:13 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 N Barrett | Grant, MN | |
| 12:25 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 N Herman | Grant, MN | |
| 12:48 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 0 | 3 N Barrett | Grant, MN | UP TO A FOOT OF WATER REPORTED ON HWY 59 NORTH OF BARRETT. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 15, 2011
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 15 | 3:40 AM CDT | EF1 | Barnes, ND | 3.0 | 100 | $750,000 |
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.