Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2014

EF0 tornado, Marshall, Minnesota, June 18, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Lyon County on June 18, 2014, touching down at 10:24 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 18, 2014
Touchdown
10:24 PM CDT (03:24 UTC)
Lifted
10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lyon County
Touchdown point
44.480, -95.750
Lift-off point
44.480, -95.745
Record number
1406182124-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms produced a tornado and heavy rain in the late evening of June 18th and morning of June 19th. The heavy rain caused flash flooding and areal flooding.

A brief tornado caused no reported damage.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:49 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:10 UTC and running to 06:31 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:55 UTC15:12 UTCFlood WarningFSD
02:49 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningFSD
03:10 UTC06:31 UTCTornado WatchFSD
03:28 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningFSD
03:30 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WarningFSD
03:33 UTC13:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningFSD
06:31 UTC09:28 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFSD
13:27 UTC01:30 UTCFlood WarningFSD

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 01:00 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 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

3.4 hours before the tornado, 175 km from the path. June 19, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2014-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 47 joules per kilogram, CIN -493, lifted condensation level 1291 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2014-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 84 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
47 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-493 J/kg
Surface CAPE
932 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1291 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:21 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
03:24 UTCTORNADO3 Ne MarshallLyon, MN
03:49 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD10 Nw MarshallLyon, MN
04:40 UTCFLASH FLOOD6 Ne MarshallLyon, MNWATER OVER HIGHWAYS 8 AND 9 TO THE NORTHEAST OF MARSHALL TOWARDS COTTONWOOD. ADDITIONAL FLASH FLOODING WAS POSSIBLE BUT PATROL WAS NOT ABLE TO TRAVEL ANY FURTHER.
04:49 UTCFLASH FLOODBelviewRedwood, MNBASEMENT WALL COLLAPSED AT A HOME IN BELVIEW DUE TO FLOODING.
05:05 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.24MaynardChippewa, MNOCCURRED IN ONE HOUR. MANY ROADS IN MAYNARD ARE COVERED WITH WATER.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 18, 2014

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 181:15 AM CDTEF0Clay, IA0.250$5,000
June 187:27 AM CDTEF0Dane, WI0.230
June 186:05 PM CDTEF1Hyde, SD0.740
June 186:07 PM CDTEF0Buffalo, SD2.0400
June 186:45 PM CDTEF0Buffalo, SD0.7250
June 186:58 PM CDTEF1Jerauld, SD0.750$15,000
June 187:00 PM CDTEF0Faulk, SD1.275
June 187:00 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD0.275
June 187:01 PM CDTEF1Jerauld, SD6.8150$50,000
June 187:08 PM CDTEF0McIntosh, ND0.020
June 187:08 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD0.8100$20,000
June 187:30 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD2.22001$5.2 million
June 187:43 PM CDTEF4Jerauld, SD11.58802$300,000
June 187:45 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD1.1100$25,000
June 188:49 PM EDTEF0Clarion, PA4.6150$25,000
June 188:16 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 188:26 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 188:36 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150

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.