Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2016

EF0 tornado, Villard, Minnesota, May 25, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Pope County on May 25, 2016, touching down at 3:10 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.

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
May 25, 2016
Touchdown
3:10 PM CDT (20:10 UTC)
Lifted
3:12 PM CDT (20:12 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Pope County
Touchdown point
45.699, -95.283
Lift-off point
45.700, -95.280
Record number
1605251410-01

The damage survey

2 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. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

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

An Isolated but severe thunderstorm developed along a frontal boundary in central Minnesota during the afternoon of Wednesday, May 25th, near Glenwood. This storm tracked to the northeast and produced a tornado near Villard, along with large hail, and funnel cloud reports from northwest Stearns, and southern Todd, to central Morrison county. Another severe thunderstorms formed west of Albany and tracked to the northeast and formed a brief tornado near St. Anthony. No injuries were reported. A small shed and a few boats were flipped over near Villard.

A few boats were flipped, a shed was damaged and shingles were blown off a roof near Amelia Lake.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
20:16 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMPX

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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

8.2 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. May 25, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2016-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 452 joules per kilogram, CIN -107, lifted condensation level 1396 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 12:00Z on 2016-05-25The 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 53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
452 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-107 J/kg
Surface CAPE
95 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1396 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

3.8 hours after it, 162 km from the path. May 26, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2016-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 755 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 1033 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 2016-05-26The 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 111 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 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
755 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2157 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1033 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 164 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:11 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
20:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw VillardPope, MNBOATS FLIPPED AND SHINGLES OFF ROOFS NEAR AMELIA LAKE.
20:10 UTCTORNADO1 Ssw VillardPope, MNBOATS FLIPPED...SHED DAMAGED AND SHINGLES OFF ROOFS NEAR AMELIA LAKE.
20:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD3 W West UnionDouglas, MNPOSSIBLE TOUCHDOWN.
20:27 UTCHAIL 1West UnionTodd, MN
21:10 UTCHAIL 1Round PrairieTodd, MN
21:15 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.25Round PrairieTodd, MNFELL IN 30 MINUTES.
22:20 UTCHAIL 11 Sse Long PrairieTodd, MN
23:09 UTCTORNADO4 Nnw AlbanyStearns, MNBRIEF TOUCHDOWN. A FEW TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN NEAR HIGHWAY 238 AND UNIVERSAL RD, JUST NORTHEAST OF ST ANTHONY. TIME BASED ON RADAR AND VIDEO SHOWING TOUCHDOWN. MULTIPLE PHOTOS OF CONDENSATION FUNNEL FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

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 May 25, 2016

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 251:29 AM CDTEF1Okmulgee, OK1.8350$5,000
May 256:08 PM CDTEF0Ottawa, KS0.525
May 256:09 PM CDTEF0Stearns, MN3.325$15,000
May 257:07 PM CDTEF4Chapman tornado, KS25.19008
May 259:27 PM CDTEF1Morris, KS5.375
May 259:53 PM CDTEF2Garfield, OK5.0300$20,000
May 2510:25 PM CDTEF1Wabaunsee, KS3.550

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.