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.

  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.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
22:15 UTC02:54 UTCTornado WatchARX
00:26 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningARX
01:41 UTC02:15 UTCTornado WarningARX

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2020-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 40 joules per kilogram, CIN -71, lifted condensation level 944 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2020-06-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 146 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 12:00Z

10.4 hours after it, 171 km from the path. June 29, 2020.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2020-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 47 joules per kilogram, CIN -327, lifted condensation level 2186 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2020-06-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 300 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:36 UTCHAIL 0.53 E OronocoOlmsted, MNREPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).
23:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 608 W of ChatfieldFillmore, MNDELAYED REPORT.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 608 W of ChatfieldOlmsted, MNDELAYED REPORT.
23:40 UTCHAIL 18 W of ChatfieldFillmore, MNDELAYED REPORT - 1.15 INCHES OF RAIN TOO.
23:40 UTCHAIL 18 W of ChatfieldOlmsted, MNDELAYED REPORT - 1.15 INCHES OF RAIN TOO.
23:44 UTCHAIL 0.72 S CummingsvilleFillmore, MNDIME SIZE HAIL AND ESTIMATED 30 MPH WINDS BETWEEN STEWARTVILLE AND CHATFIELD.
00:07 UTCHAIL 0.252 Ese EyotaOlmsted, MNPEA SIZED BETWEEN EYOTA AND DOVER.
00:20 UTCHAIL 0.71 N DoverOlmsted, MNDIME SIZE HAIL NORTH OF DOVER.
00:23 UTCHAIL 1Saint CharlesWinona, MN.
00:23 UTCHAIL 1Saint CharlesWinona, MN
00:24 UTCHAIL 0.51 S Saint CharlesWinona, MNREPORT FROM MPING: HALF-INCH (0.50 IN.).
00:27 UTCHAIL 0.251 Sse Saint CharlesWinona, MNPEA SIZED HAIL SOUTH OF ST. CHARLES NEAR I-90.
00:42 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD8 W of KelloggWabasha, MNTWO VERY BRIEF FUNNEL CLOUDS.
00:48 UTCHAIL 0.252 S UticaWinona, MNPEA SIZED HAIL 2 MILES SOUTH OF UTICA.
00:50 UTCHAIL 11 W BethanyWinona, MNQUARTER SIZE HAIL 3 S OF ALTURA, MN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
00:55 UTCHAIL 0.882 S LewistonWinona, MN
01:00 UTCHAIL 0.5LewistonWinona, MN
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGLewistonWinona, MNDELAYED REPORT. LARGE BRANCHES DOWN AND SOME SHINGLES REMOVED FROM A HOUSE IN LEWISTON. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGLewistonWinona, MNLARGE TREE BRANCHES DOWN.
01:12 UTCHAIL 1LewistonWinona, MN.
01:12 UTCHAIL 1LewistonWinona, MN
01:29 UTCHAIL 0.751 W StocktonWinona, MN.
01:29 UTCHAIL 0.751 W StocktonWinona, MN
01:38 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Sse StocktonWinona, MNVIEWED FROM I-90/43 S EXIT. LOCATION ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
01:39 UTCTORNADO3 Nw WilsonWinona, MNPRELIMINARY REPORT.
01:45 UTCTORNADO3 Se StocktonWinona, MNPRELIMINARY REPORT.
01:53 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Ese StocktonWinona, MNWALL CLOUD WITH A FUNNEL.
01:54 UTCTORNADO2 Ene StocktonWinona, MN2ND TORNADO FROM JUNE 28TH DOCUMENTED. LASTED APPROX 2 MINUTES AND WAS LOW END EF0.
02:58 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.2WinonaWinona, 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 288:27 PM CDTUnratedMorton, ND1.3100
June 288:54 PM CDTEF0Winona, MN0.620$2,000
June 289:00 PM CDTUnratedBottineau, ND0.450
June 289:05 PM CDTEF1Bottineau, ND1.0100$150,000

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.