EF0 tornado, Farming to Albany, 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

11:26 AM CDT (16:26 UTC)

Lifted

11:28 AM CDT (16:28 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Stearns County

Touchdown point

45.573, -94.599

Lift-off point

45.576, -94.557

Record number

2108281026-01

Severe thunderstorms that developed across South Dakota early Saturday morning, August 28th, quickly moved into west central Minnesota and produced up to 3 diameter hail in Swift County. These storms congealed into a fast moving bow-echo that surged across parts of central Minnesota, between Willmar, St. Cloud and Mora. Several areas received very large hail, severe wind gusts and straight-line winds, and there was one tornado south of Albany. As the storms moved over east-central Minnesota, the severity of the storms lessened and only produced isolated wind damage around Milaca. The worst damaged areas were near Glenwood, Sauk Centre, and north and east of St. Cloud where numerous trees were blown down.

A storm chaser reported a brief tornado, and so a storm survey was conducted. The tornado tracked mostly across fields, but it did damage about two dozen trees, some of which were knocked over. The tornado was not always strong enough to produce corn and tree damage, but it did so occasionally along its path. The storm chaser took drone video a few days later, also revealing the tornado path.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 16:24 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 12:10 UTC and running to 17:00 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 12:32 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.

Paynesville (PEX), 26 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:25 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.