EF0 tornado, Danvers to Benson, Minnesota, June 19, 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

June 19, 2014

Touchdown

4:13 PM CDT (21:13 UTC)

Lifted

4:26 PM CDT (21:26 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Swift County

Touchdown point

45.276, -95.665

Lift-off point

45.330, -95.614

Record number

1406191513-01

9 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 End. No survey conducted.
• Tornado Start. No damage survey.
• Tornado End. 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.

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 brief tornado touched down north of Danvers. It tore a narrow path through a corn field before moving into a slough area. Other than the path through the corn field, there was no damage.

A tornado touched down southwest of Benson. It moved northeast, occasionally lifting up and coming back down to the ground. It crossed Highway 12 where it knocked down or broke a few trees. It continued to the northeast, and knocked down or broke about a dozen trees in the golf course on the northwest edge of Benson. It was photographed and videotaped by numerous citizens, fire department personnel and law enforcement. There were two other adjacent funnel clouds near the tornado, but they did not touch down.

A brief tornado touched down just to the northeast of Benson. It took the roof off a shed and hit a grove of trees but caused no other damage. It drew water upward from a slough and then soon thereafter dropped all the water and debris when the tornado dissipated. The tornado was recorded on photos and video.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:10 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 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 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 Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:10 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

10 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.