EF0 tornado, Biscay to Lester Prairie, Minnesota, August 16, 2017

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

August 16, 2017

Touchdown

8:05 PM CDT (01:05 UTC)

Lifted

8:07 PM CDT (01:07 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McLeod County

Touchdown point

44.852, -94.309

Lift-off point

44.851, -94.325

Record number

1708161905-01

14 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 76 mph.

• Tornado moved over corn fields but produced little crop damage. Tornado caught on video by storm chaser.
• Tornado touched down in a corn field and was caught on video by a storm chaser.

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

A band of heavy rain developed along a warm front that lifted north through southern and central Minnesota during the afternoon and early evening of August 16. Small low-topped supercells developed within the band and produced numerous tornadoes. In addition, a large circulation was noted in southwest Minnesota during the late evening, early morning hours. This circulation produced isolated severe wind gusts near Redwood Falls, along with flooding as this circulation lasted for several hours in the vicinity. ||This was the most widespread and intense rainfall event of the year in Minnesota, with 1-2 inch totals covering approximately 50,000 square miles, or about 60% of the state. Totals of greater than three inches were concentrated in a multi-county area in western and central Minnesota, generally centered on the Minnesota River. The largest official 24-hour rainfall report came from Redwood Falls, where the airport recorded 9.45 inches, and a volunteer with the National Weather Service's cooperative observer program reported 8.12 inches.||The flood waters caused significant damage to county and township roads, a section of regional railway, and county agricultural drainage systems. The cost of the damage was estimated at $675,750 in total relief.

A brief EF0 tornado between Hutchinson and Biscay. It tracked through corn fields and damaged a few trees.

A brief EF0 tornado on the south side of Lester Prairie produced a concentrated area of tree damage as it headed west. A funnel cloud was observed a few minutes earlier on the east side of town. Estimated max wind speed 75 mph.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:59 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:00 UTC and running to 03:00 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 00:50 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.

Hutchinson (HCD), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:05 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 2017 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

13 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.