Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2020
EF0 tornado, The Arches to Goodview, Minnesota, June 28, 2020
From The Arches to Goodview, this EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Winona County on June 28, 2020, touching down at 8:37 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 of property damage.
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 mphthis tornado
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 28, 2020
- Touchdown
- 8:37 PM CDT (01:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:42 PM CDT (01:42 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 0.7 miles (1.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $2,000
- County
- Winona County
- Touchdown point
- 44.002, -91.806
- Lift-off point
- 44.012, -91.805
- Record number
- 2006281937-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Thunderstorms moved across southeast Minnesota during the late afternoon and evening of June 28th. These storms produced two small tornadoes across Winona County. The first occurred northeast of Lewiston with very little damage reported. The second tornado touched down east of Stockton and also produced very little damage. The storms also dropped large hail ranging from nickel up to golf ball sized. The golf ball sized hail fell west of Lyle (Mower County).
A small tornado crossed U.S. Highway 14 northeast of Lewiston. The tornado only produced some minor tree damage.
A short-lived tornado was on the ground for about two minutes northeast of Stockton. The tornado only produced some minor tree damage.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:15 UTC and running to 02:54 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | 02:54 UTC | Tornado Watch | ARX |
| 00:26 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ARX |
| 01:41 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | ARX |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:15 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.
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z
1.6 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. June 29, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 40 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -71 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 891 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 944 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 146 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 130 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z
10.4 hours after it, 171 km from the path. June 29, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 47 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -327 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 190 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2186 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 300 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 406 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
The radar
The La Crosse radar (KARX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:36 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 3 E Oronoco | Olmsted, MN | REPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.). |
| 23:40 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 8 W of Chatfield | Fillmore, MN | DELAYED REPORT. |
| 23:40 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 8 W of Chatfield | Olmsted, MN | DELAYED REPORT. |
| 23:40 UTC | HAIL 1 | 8 W of Chatfield | Fillmore, MN | DELAYED REPORT - 1.15 INCHES OF RAIN TOO. |
| 23:40 UTC | HAIL 1 | 8 W of Chatfield | Olmsted, MN | DELAYED REPORT - 1.15 INCHES OF RAIN TOO. |
| 23:44 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | 2 S Cummingsville | Fillmore, MN | DIME SIZE HAIL AND ESTIMATED 30 MPH WINDS BETWEEN STEWARTVILLE AND CHATFIELD. |
| 00:07 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 2 Ese Eyota | Olmsted, MN | PEA SIZED BETWEEN EYOTA AND DOVER. |
| 00:20 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | 1 N Dover | Olmsted, MN | DIME SIZE HAIL NORTH OF DOVER. |
| 00:23 UTC | HAIL 1 | Saint Charles | Winona, MN | . |
| 00:23 UTC | HAIL 1 | Saint Charles | Winona, MN | |
| 00:24 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 1 S Saint Charles | Winona, MN | REPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.). |
| 00:27 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 1 Sse Saint Charles | Winona, MN | PEA SIZED HAIL SOUTH OF ST. CHARLES NEAR I-90. |
| 00:42 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 8 W of Kellogg | Wabasha, MN | TWO VERY BRIEF FUNNEL CLOUDS. |
| 00:48 UTC | HAIL 0.25 | 2 S Utica | Winona, MN | PEA SIZED HAIL 2 MILES SOUTH OF UTICA. |
| 00:50 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 W Bethany | Winona, MN | QUARTER SIZE HAIL 3 S OF ALTURA, MN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 00:55 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 2 S Lewiston | Winona, MN | |
| 01:00 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | Lewiston | Winona, MN | |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Lewiston | Winona, MN | DELAYED REPORT. LARGE BRANCHES DOWN AND SOME SHINGLES REMOVED FROM A HOUSE IN LEWISTON. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Lewiston | Winona, MN | LARGE TREE BRANCHES DOWN. |
| 01:12 UTC | HAIL 1 | Lewiston | Winona, MN | . |
| 01:12 UTC | HAIL 1 | Lewiston | Winona, MN | |
| 01:29 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 W Stockton | Winona, MN | . |
| 01:29 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 W Stockton | Winona, MN | |
| 01:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Sse Stockton | Winona, MN | VIEWED FROM I-90/43 S EXIT. LOCATION ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR. |
| 01:39 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nw Wilson | Winona, MN | PRELIMINARY REPORT. |
| 01:45 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Stockton | Winona, MN | PRELIMINARY REPORT. |
| 01:53 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Ese Stockton | Winona, MN | WALL CLOUD WITH A FUNNEL. |
| 01:54 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ene Stockton | Winona, MN | 2ND TORNADO FROM JUNE 28TH DOCUMENTED. LASTED APPROX 2 MINUTES AND WAS LOW END EF0. |
| 02:58 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.2 | Winona | Winona, MN |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 28, 2020
4 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.