EF0 tornado, Janesville to Elysian, Minnesota, March 19, 2012

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 19, 2012

Touchdown

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

Lifted

6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$350,000

Counties

Waseca and Le Sueur counties

Touchdown point

44.156, -93.689

Lift-off point

44.250, -93.692

Record number

1203191725-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A line of strong thunderstorms moved rapidly northward across southern Minnesota during the late afternoon and early evening hours of Monday, March 19th. Some of the storms became severe near Albert Lea, and Elysian, or east of Mankato, Minnesota. One of the storms produced an EF0 tornado near Elysian, which traveled approximately 6.5 miles to the north before lifting. Most of the damage was associated downed trees and roof damage. As the storms moved north, some of the stronger storms produced wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph across the western Twin Cities Metro, with minor damage reported in Carver.

An EF-0 tornado touched down just south of Elysian Lake Road, just south of 412th Avenue, in northern Waseca County. The tornado tracked north for approximately 2.8 miles while paralleling the eastern shore of Elysian Lake and Elysian Lake Road. It crossed Elysian Lake near 427th Ave, before moving into southern Le Sueur County. ||Damage was primarily associated with uprooted trees and roof damage. The worst damage occurred to a farmstead which had a metal storage shed collapse along Elysian Lake Road. ||Based on trees uprooted and structural damage to a metal storage shed, winds were estimated around 80 mph.

The EF-0 tornado that formed in northern Waseca County continued to move northward across the western sections of Elysian in Le Sueur County, where two small empty grain bins were blown into a field. Also, a small metal shed was blown across Highway 60 in the same area. ||As the tornado continued to track north of Lake Francis, the damage pattern became more complex, and some damage signatures were associated with downburst winds. However, the damage pattern was such that it impossible to discern between the tornado damage and any downburst damage. Therefore there is no separate entry for thunderstorm wind damage at this point. ||The path length of the tornado in Le Sueur County was approximately 3.7 miles, which ended at the St. Peters Church two miles north of Lake Francis. Although most of the damage was associated with uprooted trees and roof damage to homes, numerous boat docks and lifts along the northern shore of Lake Francis were picked up and tossed into the adjacent properties. ||Based on damage, winds were estimated at 80 mph, and the total path length across Waseca and Le Sueur Counties was 6.54 miles.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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.

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:23 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.