Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2017
EF1 tornado, Collis, Minnesota, June 13, 2017
This EF1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Traverse County on June 13, 2017, touching down at 8:30 PM CDT and reaching 50 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- June 13, 2017
- Touchdown
- 8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:33 PM CDT (01:33 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Traverse County
- Touchdown point
- 45.600, -96.325
- Lift-off point
- 45.601, -96.324
- Record number
- 1706131930-01
The damage survey
25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.
- garage door pushed off tracks
- Damage lofted roughly 2000 ft to the northeast
- Damage lofted roughly 2000 to the northeast.
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
A large upper level low pressure trough lifting northeast over the region along with a surface cold front interacting with a warm and very humid air mass brought severe thunderstorms to west central Minnesota during the evening hours. The storms brought damaging winds along with a few tornadoes to the region.
A resident watched a tornado touchdown in an open field before moving over their farmstead. Minor damage to a garage door and garage siding occurred along with multiple uprooted trees and snapped trunks. Tree limbs and branches were tossed in multiple directions.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 02:04 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:40 UTC | 12:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 20:15 UTC | 02:04 UTC | Tornado Watch | ABR |
| 01:03 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:12 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:38 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:55 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.
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
1.5 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. June 14, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 118 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -325 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 111 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1575 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 279 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 479 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 10.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z
10.5 hours after it, 180 km from the path. June 14, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -73515 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1996 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -5 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 163 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:30 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:22 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 N Holloway | Swift, MN | PICTURE SUBMITTED VIA TWITTER. |
| 23:45 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Hancock | Stevens, MN | |
| 23:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 S Hancock | Stevens, MN | THERE HAS BEEN NUMEROUS CALLS ABOUT A TORNADO TOUCHING DOWN SOUTH OF HANCOCK. |
| 00:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sw Cyrus | Stevens, MN | TREES DOWN. |
| 00:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Hancock | Stevens, MN | |
| 00:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Hancock | Stevens, MN | |
| 00:04 UTC | TORNADO | 2 W Cyrus | Stevens, MN | VIDEO SHOWS STRONG TORNADO, AND TRUSTED STORM TRACKER REPORTED DAMAGE TO A SUB-STATION SOUTH OF HWY 28. TIME BASED ON SPOTTER REPORTS AND RADAR. |
| 00:04 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wsw Cyrus | Stevens, MN | VIDEO SHOWS STRONG TORNADO, AND TRUSTED STORM TRACKER REPORTED DAMAGE TO A SUB-STATION SOUTH OF HWY 28. TIME BASED ON SPOTTER REPORTS AND RADAR. |
| 00:05 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Ne Nashua | Wilkin, MN | A FEW DIME TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL AND BRIEF HEAVY RAIN. |
| 00:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | DAMAGE TO SHED, LARGE BRANCH BROKE OFF TREE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 00:22 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | Donnelly | Stevens, MN | PHOTO SUBMITTED VIA FACEBOOK. |
| 00:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 4 Ssw Hoffman | Grant, MN | FUNNEL MOVING UP FROM SOUTH. |
| 00:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 4 Ssw Hoffman | Grant, MN | FUNNEL MOVING UP FROM SOUTH. STORM HAD PRODUCED EARLIER TOUCHDOWN IN ADJACENT PORTIONS OF NORTHERN STEVENS COUNTY. |
| 01:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Herman | Grant, MN | SCATTERED LARGE BRANCHES AND TREE LIMBS DOWN AROUND TOWN. ONE 12 INCH DIAMETER TREE BROKEN DOWN. |
| 01:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Nne Nassau | Lac Qui Parle, MN | NUMEROUS TREES DOWNED OR SNAPPED NEAR INTERSECTION OF 330TH ST. AND 121ST AVE WEST OF BELLINGHAM. A FEW TREES ALSO DOWN IN COMMUNITY OF ROSEN. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nnw Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | MULTIPLE UPROOTED TREES AT THE ORTONVILLE GOLF COURSE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | LARGE TREE BRANCH FELL ON HOUSE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | PATIO RIPPED OFF HOUSE, SUBSEQUENT ROOF DAMAGE OCCURRED. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Wnw Artichoke | Big Stone, MN | 13 MILES NE OF ORTONVILLE. WIND CAVED IN THE SIDES OF TWO GRAIN BINS. WIND ESTIMATE 70+ MPH. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | MULTIPLE TREES SNAPPED, MULTIPLE LARGE BRANCHES DOWN, AND ELECTRICAL LINES DOWN. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | 4 Se Bonanza Grove | Big Stone, MN | TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | 8 Ne Corona | Roberts, SD | TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 01:23 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 1 W Odessa | Big Stone, MN | TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 01:23 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Odessa | Big Stone, MN | TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 01:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ssw Barry | Big Stone, MN | LOSS OF WALL MACHINE SHED WALL AND DAMAGE TO MACHINE SHED ROOF. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:27 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sse Graceville | Big Stone, MN | COLLAPSE OF MACHINE SHED WALLS. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:27 UTC | TORNADO | 2 W Graceville | Big Stone, MN | SHORT LIVED. |
| 01:27 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Clinton | Big Stone, MN | PARTIAL ROOF TORN OFF OF HOUSE, SIDING DAMAGE TO HOUSE, MACHINE SHED WITH COLLAPSED ROOF AND WALLS, MACHINE SHED WITH CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO SOUTHWEST SECTION, EMPTY GRAIN BIN REMOVED FROM CEMENT BASE AND TOSSED, WIDESPR |
| 01:29 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Clinton | Big Stone, MN | MULTIPLE TREES SNAPPED AND UPROOTED IN CLINTON. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Johnson | Big Stone, MN | COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF AN OPEN FACED SHED. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Wnw Johnson | Traverse, MN | LARGE TREE BRANCHES DOWN. RADAR TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Wsw Johnson | Big Stone, MN | MINOR DAMAGE TO ROOF OF BARN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ene Odessa | Big Stone, MN | DENTED GRAIN BINS, SECTION OF MACHINE SHED ROOF REMOVED, GRAIN AUGER TIPPED, WINDOW BROKEN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 7 Ne Ortonville | Big Stone, MN | DAMAGE TO OUTBUILDING. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Nw Johnson | Traverse, MN | RESIDENT SAW THE TORNADO TOUCHDOWN, SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE ON THE PROPERTY, TIME RADAR ESTIMATED. |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Johnson | Big Stone, MN | PARTIAL LOSS OF ROOF. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 61 | 3 Wsw Graceville | Big Stone, MN | |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Tenney | Wilkin, MN | LARGE GRAIN FACILITY COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED.INCLUDING RAIL CARS. |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 2 E Campbell | Wilkin, MN | |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Tintah | Traverse, MN | MANY LARGE LIMBS DOWNED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 13, 2017
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 13 | 4:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Hand, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 4:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Hand, SD | 0.3 | 175 | |||
| June 13 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Hand, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 6:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Brown, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 6:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Stevens, MN | 1.5 | 35 | |||
| June 13 | 6:56 PM CDT | EF1 | Stevens, MN | 3.0 | 300 | |||
| June 13 | 7:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Grant, MN | 0.5 | 75 | |||
| June 13 | 7:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Day, SD | 0.2 | 40 | |||
| June 13 | 7:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Marshall, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 13 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Roberts, SD | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| June 13 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Roberts, SD | 0.1 | 90 | |||
| June 13 | 8:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Big Stone, MN | 0.3 | 170 |
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.