EF0 tornado, Atwater to Litchfield, Minnesota, August 3, 2018

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 3, 2018

Touchdown

6:34 PM CDT (23:34 UTC)

Lifted

6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

11.1 miles (17.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

Counties

Kandiyohi and Meeker counties

Touchdown point

45.141, -94.791

Lift-off point

45.153, -94.563

Record number

1808031734-01

15 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 83 mph.

• Trees here and south of this point were downed from southwest to northeast, or south to north.
• Trees downed to the southeast.
• Numerous trees uprooted or broken.
• A few broken or uprooted trees.

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

A line of storms that developed across South Dakota, moved eastward into west central, central and east central Minnesota during the late afternoon, and evening hours. Several bow echo segments were indicated on radar, with one producing a tornado between Atwater and Grove City. A few trees and power lines were blown down as this line of storms continued to move eastward across Minnesota. ||There were numerous measured wind gusts in the range of 45 to 55 mph as these storms moved across the state, including 55 mph at the St. Paul airport, 53 mph near Starbuck, and Granite Falls, 51 mph near Clearwater, 49 mph near Clara City, 48 mph at the Minneapolis, St. Paul International Airport, and 47 mph at the Madison airport.

A NWS storm survey indicated an EF0 Tornado began near Atwater and tracked east for 1.6 miles along Highway 12, and entered Meeker County. Multiple trees and power lines were blown down in the city of Atwater. Some of the trees landed on houses and caused structural damage.

This is the continuation of the same EF0 tornado that tracked across Kandiyohi county, and entered Meeker county. This tornado tracked an additional 9.5 miles east along Highway 12, through Grove City, to just northwest of Litchfield. Pockets of tree damage, an overturned trailer, and some other minor structural damage to sheds and pole barns resulted. Straight line wind damage, mostly to trees, was found south of the tornado |track and Highway 12. Maximum winds were estimated at 80 mph, with a width of 300 yards.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:34 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:43 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:35 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 2018 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.