Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2016
EF0 tornado, Winsted, Minnesota, July 27, 2016
This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across McLeod County on July 27, 2016, touching down at 12:05 PM CDT and reaching 25 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
- July 27, 2016
- Touchdown
- 12:05 PM CDT (17:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:06 PM CDT (17:06 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- McLeod County
- Touchdown point
- 44.947, -94.026
- Lift-off point
- 44.952, -94.023
- Record number
- 1607271105-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A lone severe thunderstorm developed west of Winsted and intensified as it moved across Winsted, then between Watertown and Delano. This storm moved into Hennepin County and weakened but produced gusty winds and torrential rainfall. As this storm moved east of the Twin Cities, it produced a boundary which kept additional thunderstorms developing across the central part of the Twin Cities metro area. This allowed for flash flooding to develop as high rainfall rates, combined with urban streets, caused areas of 2-3 feet of flowing water.
Multiple photos and videos showed a funnel cloud east of Winsted, and that it was very close to the ground. Damage was verified at the same location, with several trees knocked down and heavy farm machinery moved.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:58 UTC | 17:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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), 12:00Z
5.1 hours before the tornado, 35 km from the path. July 27, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 889 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -75 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1749 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1057 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 7 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 26 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 58 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
6.9 hours after it, 35 km from the path. July 28, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -82 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1120 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1015 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -14 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 37 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
The surface observations
Glencoe (GYL), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:15 UTC | 79.16 | 71 | 160° 4 kt | 1013.9 | ||
| 15:35 UTC | 78.8 | 71.24 | 200° 4 kt | 1014.2 | VCTS | |
| 15:55 UTC | 77.54 | 71 | 190° 5 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 16:15 UTC | 78 | 71.42 | 170° 3 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 16:35 UTC | 77 | 72.14 | 190° 5 kt | 1014.2 | -RA | |
| 16:55 UTC | 77.72 | 71.78 | 200° 5 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 17:15 UTC | 77.54 | 71.6 | 240° 5 kt | 1014.6 | VCTS | |
| 17:35 UTC | 77.72 | 71.42 | 0° 0 kt | 1014.9 | TS | |
| 17:55 UTC | 78.44 | 71.6 | 210° 4 kt | 1014.6 | TS | |
| 18:15 UTC | 79.7 | 72.5 | 200° 5 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 18:35 UTC | 77.18 | 71.6 | 310° 6 kt | 1014.2 | ||
| 18:55 UTC | 78 | 72.32 | 300° 9 kt | 1013.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 38 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:02 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:05 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Ese Winsted | Mcleod, MN | SPOTTER REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD TO THEIR SOUTHWEST. REPORTED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. |
| 17:09 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 E Winsted | Mcleod, MN | LARGE 15 TO 20 INCH TREE BRANCH DOWN. |
| 17:10 UTC | HAIL 1 | Winsted | Mcleod, MN | EXTREMELY HEAVY RAIN REPORTED TOO. |
| 17:12 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 1 Ne Winsted | Mcleod, MN | SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE WITH RULER. |
| 17:12 UTC | HAIL 3 | 1 Ne Winsted | Mcleod, MN | SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGE WITH RULER. |
| 17:16 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Winsted | Mcleod, MN | TREE DOWN ON POWER LINE ON FIRE. |
| 17:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Delano | Wright, MN | METAL ROOFING RIPPED OFF BARN AND THROWN 50 YARDS. MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON POWER LINES. |
| 17:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Winsted | Mcleod, MN | TREE DOWN ON POWER LINE ON FIRE. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 27, 2016
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.