EF1 tornado, Scandia to Shafer, Minnesota, July 28, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

July 28, 2019

Touchdown

4:28 PM CDT (21:28 UTC)

Lifted

4:47 PM CDT (21:47 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

8.2 miles (13.1 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.0 million

Crop damage

$10,000

Counties

Washington and Chisago counties

Touchdown point

45.248, -92.902

Lift-off point

45.336, -92.791

Record number

1907281528-01

29 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 90 mph.

• Solar panels broken and thrown. Unsure if damage was from debris or winds itself, didn't get close enough.

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

Several severe storms developed in a highly sheared environment. Instability was adequate enough to cause a few of the storms to become tornadic near Silver Lake, and around Forest Lake, and Scandia during the afternoon of Sunday, July 28th. ||A storm survey found a total of six tornadoes. These surveys indicated an EF1 tornado formed near Silver Lake, and another between Forest Lake, north of Scandia, and into southern Chicago County. ||The worst damage occurred along Bone Lake near Scandia, where very large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some of the trees caused significant damage to lake homes on Bone Lake.

An EF1 tornado spun up on the southwest side of Sylvan Lake and continued northeast in a broken path through Bone Lake, and moved into Chisago County on 240th Street North, east of Morgan Avenue. The path length was approximately 4.4 miles across Washington County, with a maximum width of 440 yards. The worst damage occurred on Bone Lake where numerous large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some roof damage was noted, but most of the trees fell away from homes. Other damage along the path was associated with flattened corn, tree damage, a storage shed that had its roof blown off, and damage to a solar panel farm.

This is the continuation path of the Washington County tornado that moved into Chisago County on 240th Street North, east of Morgan Avenue. This EF1 tornado continued for approximately another 3.8 miles before dissipating north of a farm that was damaged on 268th Street. Along the path in Chisago County, the tornado damaged a farm shed, uprooted numerous trees, damaged an outdoor wedding venue near Highway 25, and destroyed an outbuilding before dissipating. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph, with a width of 250 yards in Chisago County.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:25 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:41 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:52 UTC and running to 23:20 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 19:57 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), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:26 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 2019 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.