EF0 tornado, Point Douglas to Prescott, Minnesota, July 7, 2014

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

July 7, 2014

Touchdown

6:43 PM CDT (23:43 UTC)

Lifted

6:49 PM CDT (23:49 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

Counties

Washington and Pierce counties

Touchdown point

44.805, -92.808

Lift-off point

44.796, -92.757

Record number

1407071743-01

37 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 75 mph.

• Trees were actually snapped, software limitation does not allow for 75mph for snapped trees. Most trees were snapped from west to east. The stump closest to the tennis court was snapped inward toward the tornado center; from south to north.
• Tree trunks were actually snapped, but software limitations will not all for a wind speed of 75mph for that degree of damage.
• Point is plotted at location of the tree damage in the picture (across the field).
• Picture taken from road just to the east.

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

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of Monday, July 7th. These storms became severe as they moved from central to east central Minnesota, and into portions of west central Wisconsin. A large hail swath occurred in northern Scott County and moved eastward into portions of northwest and central Dakota County. In addition, there was a brief tornado touchdown in southern Washington County at the St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park. The damage path was small and mainly associated with downed trees.

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of Monday, July 7th. These storms became severe as they moved from central to east central Minnesota, and into portions of west central Wisconsin. There was a brief tornado touchdown in southern Washington County at the St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, and it moved eastward across the St. Croix River and caused minor damage to trees before lifting about a mile into Pierce County.

An EF0 tornado touchdown outside the St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, and moved through the park causing damage to trees and a tennis court. Most of the damage was rated low end EF0 based on hardwood tree damage. The tornado continued to move eastward into Pierce County, Wisconsin.

An EF0 tornado continued to move eastward from Washington County, into Pierce County, Wisconsin, where most of the damage was large tree limbs blown down from mature hardwood trees.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 00:21 UTC.

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 20:06 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), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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 2014 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.