Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2019
Unrated tornado, Marais, Minnesota, June 18, 2019
This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cook County on June 18, 2019, touching down at 2:45 PM CDT and reaching 5 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 mph
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.
Unratedthis tornado
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
- Unrated
- Date
- June 18, 2019
- Touchdown
- 2:45 PM CDT (19:45 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:46 PM CDT (19:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 5 yards (5 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Cook County
- Touchdown point
- 47.890, -90.300
- Lift-off point
- 47.890, -90.300
- Record number
- 1906181345-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A potent vort max moving over the Minnesota Arrowhead led to popcorn-type showers and storms during the afternoon hours. One of these storms interacted with an inland-moving lake breeze and resulted in a brief, weak tornado that was observed by a fishing party.
A fishing party on Elbow Lake observed a funnel cloud and took a photo of it. They reported there was a brief period of debris being lofted into the air. The party contacted a local pilot who performed a flyover and confirmed tree damage in the woods north of Elbow Lake. This tornado occurred in an area with no roads, making it difficult to survey.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Grand Marais/Coo (CKC), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Duluth radar (KDLH), 185 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:43 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 18, 2019
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.