Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2014
EF0 tornado, Gluek to Maynard, Minnesota, June 19, 2014
From Gluek to Maynard, this EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Chippewa County on June 19, 2014, touching down at 4:37 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 19, 2014
- Touchdown
- 4:37 PM CDT (21:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:41 PM CDT (21:41 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.7 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Chippewa County
- Touchdown point
- 45.016, -95.564
- Lift-off point
- 45.031, -95.559
- Record number
- 1406191537-01
The damage survey
6 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.
- Tornado start. No damage survey was conducted
- Tornado end. No damage survey was conducted.
- Tornado start. No damage survey was conducted.
- Tornado end. No damage survey was conducted.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A number of weak tornadoes and funnel clouds developed along a line of thunderstorms across west central Minnesota during the late afternoon of Thursday, June 19th. All tornadoes and funnel clouds were quite narrow, and some of them occurred simultaneously or nearly so. There was no significant damage nor any injuries.
A tornado touched down in a field and moved northeast-northeast across County Road 13. It only tore up some field grasses.
Law enforcement and multiple witnesses watched this tornado touch down in an open field. It was described as being like for a rope. After the tornado lifted, the funnel descended another two times but never again made contact with the ground.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03:40 UTC | 04:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MPX |
| 12:35 UTC | 23:08 UTC | Flood Warning | MPX |
| 21:40 UTC | 22:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 surface observations
Montevideo (MVE), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:54 UTC | 78.8 | 71.6 | 220° 7 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 20:14 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 210° 6 kt | 20 | 1010.5 | |
| 20:33 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 220° 5 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 20:54 UTC | 82.4 | 69.8 | 290° 9 kt | 14 | 1010.8 | |
| 21:14 UTC | 80.6 | 69.8 | 280° 10 kt | 17 | 1010.8 | |
| 21:34 UTC | 80.6 | 68 | 290° 12 kt | 17 | 1011.2 | |
| 21:54 UTC | 80.6 | 66.2 | 290° 10 kt | 14 | 1010.8 | |
| 22:14 UTC | 80.6 | 64.4 | 290° 8 kt | 16 | 1011.2 | |
| 22:34 UTC | 80.6 | 66.2 | 300° 8 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 22:54 UTC | 80.6 | 66.2 | 300° 6 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 23:14 UTC | 80.6 | 66.2 | 300° 4 kt | 1011.5 | ||
| 23:34 UTC | 80.6 | 66.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 158 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:36 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:08 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Maynard | Chippewa, MN | 90TH ST. SE SOUTH OF MAYNARD HAD APPROXIMATELY 4 FEET OF WATER OVER ROAD. SEVERAL RESIDENTIAL BASEMENTS IN NORTHERN MAYNARD FROM AMY ST TO RUTH ST AND NORTH TO JESSIE AVE FLOODED. HOMES ON SOUTH SIDE OF TOWN ON SWIFT AVE |
| 21:08 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wsw Benson | Swift, MN | |
| 21:13 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Benson | Swift, MN | DEBRIS CLOUD SIGHTED NEAR HIGHWAY 12. |
| 21:13 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Benson | Swift, MN | TREE DOWN. |
| 21:22 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Benson | Swift, MN | CURRENTLY OVER TOWN, BUT HAS BEEN TOUCHING DOWN INTERMITTENTLY. |
| 21:32 UTC | TORNADO | Benson | Swift, MN | SOME SIDING RIPPED OFF A BUILDING ON EASTERN PORTION OF BENSON. |
| 21:39 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nne Gluek | Chippewa, MN | |
| 21:42 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Benson | Swift, MN | |
| 21:45 UTC | TORNADO | 7 W Clara City | Chippewa, MN | ROPE TORNADO SPOTTED HEADING NORTHEAST. |
| 21:51 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Sw Swift Falls | Swift, MN | TORNADO HEADING NORTHEAST. |
| 22:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 11 N Maynard | Chippewa, MN | FUNNEL CLOUD HEADING NORTHEAST. |
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 19, 2014
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 19 | 1:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Clay, IA | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 19 | 1:05 PM MDT | EF0 | Meade, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 1:45 PM MDT | EF0 | Meade, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 2:03 PM MDT | EF0 | Haakon, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 3:04 PM CDT | EF1 | Delaware, IA | 15.7 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| June 19 | 4:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Swift, MN | 0.9 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 4:13 PM CDT | EF0 | Swift, MN | 4.4 | 20 | |||
| June 19 | 4:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Douglas, MN | 3.6 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Swift, MN | 0.7 | 10 | $5,000 | ||
| June 19 | 4:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Chippewa, MN | 0.1 | 10 |
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.