EF0 tornado, Cobden to Essig, Minnesota, August 28, 2021

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 28, 2021

Touchdown

6:29 PM CDT (23:29 UTC)

Lifted

6:37 PM CDT (23:37 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.3 miles (6.9 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Brown County

Touchdown point

44.226, -94.807

Lift-off point

44.288, -94.796

Record number

2108281729-02

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 74 mph.

• Path beginningbased on satellite imagery.
• Survey showed some large branches down.
• Satellite imagery showed significant corn damage.
• End of damage path per satellite imagery.

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

A secondary wave of severe thunderstorms developed over southwest Minnesota by the late afternoon of Saturday, August 28th. This area of storms formed a bow-echo that moved from Springfield, east-northeast toward New Ulm, Mankato, and Le Center. The most intense part of the bow-echo occurred at the onset that moved across Brown and Watonwan counties. Several tornadoes were documented. Thousands of acres of corn was flattened due to sustained intense winds. As the storm progressed northeast, the bow-echo segment became disorganized south of the Twin Cities metro area. Another wave of storms that originated over southwest Minnesota during the evening, caused strong winds in Brown County but no damage was reported.

Satellite imagery revealed a damage path through crops, and a damage survey noted large branches down. Time based on radar. QLCS tornado.

Satellite imagery revealed a damage path through crops, and a damage survey noted large branches down in two locations. Time based on radar. QLCS tornado.

Track based on satellite imagery and damage survey. Time based on radar. Tornado knocked down large branches in a small grove at the end of its path.

Satellite image showed tornado path through corn that matched up with circulation on radar. Damage survey could not locate any downed branches or any other damage indicator.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:19 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:59 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:30 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 2021 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

16 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.