EF2 tornado, Litchfield to Watkins, Minnesota, July 11, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

July 11, 2016

Touchdown

5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)

Lifted

5:32 PM CDT (22:32 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

3.1 miles (5.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Meeker County

Touchdown point

45.124, -94.545

Lift-off point

45.157, -94.504

Record number

1607111625-01

35 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• shed not attached to anything
• corn crib blown away and doors were open on metal building
• Corn crib that was bolted to foundation
• trees uprooted and well constructed wooden shed collapsed

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

The morning of Monday, July 11th, two waves of thunderstorms moved across west central and central Minnesota. Very heavy rainfall and isolated hail occurred with the main area of storms. But these storms also produced a wide area of one half to two inches of rain by sunrise. ||The morning two events set the stage for flooding in central Minnesota as several additional waves of thunderstorms developed during the afternoon, and into the evening. By Tuesday morning, a wide area of three to six inches of rain fell from north of St. Cloud to Milaca and Mora. The highest totals were across northern Kanabec County where locally six to eight inches fell based on radar estimation. The Rum, Snake and Knife rivers spilled out of their banks and caused significant and widespread flooding. ||A secondary point related to this flooding event was that according to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, this storm, which continued into the morning hours of July 12th, was the largest mega-rain event since the Duluth flood of June 19-20, 2012. A mega-rain event is classified as a six-inch rainfall that covers at least a 1000 square miles, with a central core value of at least 8 inches. ||The secondary wave in the morning, weakened by the early afternoon. An isolated thunderstorms developed near Litchfield where an outflow boundary held from the previous morning storms. These storms moved slowly northward and produced three tornadoes along this boundary. The first tornado occurred near Litchfield, the second near Watkins, and the third north of Watkins. ||The tornado near Litchfield was rated an EF-2 with peak winds of 115 mph. It had a maximum width of 100 yards and traveled approximately 3.1 miles. The tornado caused a lot of tree damage, though three single family homes received significant roof damage, and a double wide manufactured home, and garage were flipped and rolled. Another garage and shed were destroyed near Highway 12 on the north side of town.||The tornado near Watkins was also rated an EF-2 with peak winds of 125 mph. It had a maximum width of 400 yards and traveled approximately 2.1 miles. One injury occurred with this tornado. The first significant damage was to a business along Highway 55 on the south side of town. The tornado then tracked across the highway and passed through the St. Anthony Cemetery before passing through the center of Watkins doing damage to structures and many trees. The most significant damage occurred between Stearns Ave and Meeker Ave where several homes had significant roof damage, and had detached sheds, and garages destroyed. The tornado exited the town and did further tree damage at a farmstead outside of town before lifting shortly thereafter.||The tornado north of Watkins was rated an EF-1 with peak winds of 105 mph. It had a maximum width of 250 yards and traveled approximately 4.2 miles. This tornado was spawned by the same storm that moved through Watkins. Multiple chaser videos showed the Watkins tornado lifted off the ground as it became occluded, with this tornadoes touchdown point made visible by the presence of corn laid down in the field south of the first homestead hit. This was about two-thirds of mile north- northeast of where the Watkins tornado lifted. At the first farmstead hit, two open air cattle sheds where completely destroyed, along with a metal storage shed and two mostly empty grain bins. There were two cattle killed at this location as well. This storm destroyed more outbuildings at a farmstead along 160th street, with the rest of the damage along the path of the tornado being corn laid flat and tree damage.

The tornado near Litchfield was rated an EF-2 with peak winds of 115 mph. It had a maximum width of 100 yards and traveled approximately 3.2 miles. The tornado caused a lot of tree damage, though three single family homes received significant roof damage, and a double wide manufactured home, and garage were flipped and rolled. Another garage and shed were destroyed near Highway 12 on the north side of town.

The tornado near Watkins was also rated an EF-2 with peak winds of 125 mph. It had a maximum width of 400 yards and traveled approximately 2.1 miles. One injury occurred with this tornado. The first significant damage was to a business along Highway 55 on the south side of town. The tornado then tracked across the highway and passed through the St. Anthony Cemetery before passing through the center of Watkins doing damage to structures and many trees. The most significant damage occurred between Stearns Ave and Meeker Ave where several homes had significant roof damage, and had detached sheds, and garages destroyed. The tornado exited the town and did further tree damage as the tornado moved northeast into Stearns County.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:13 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:48 UTC and running to 22:31 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:24 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 2016 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.