EF1 tornado, Alden to Hartland, Minnesota, December 15, 2021

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

December 15, 2021

Touchdown

6:58 PM CST (00:58 UTC)

Lifted

7:01 PM CST (01:01 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.6 miles (5.8 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Freeborn County

Touchdown point

43.615, -93.629

Lift-off point

43.658, -93.587

Record number

2112151858-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DMX and NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Multiple trees snapped with power pole damaged nearby but repaired when we arrived
• Pine snapped and thrown across road
• Multiple trees snapped. Tornado end.
• Sean Macaday tweet 12/19 - pics on S drive

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

A low pressure system of historic strength led to a variety of high-end weather impacts from the central plains to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes December 15-16. An unprecedented December severe weather unfolded over portions of Minnesota and Wisconsin Wednesday evening, with the Storm Prediction Center issuing their farthest-north Moderate Risk for the Month of December. A serial derecho moving at 60-70 mph tracked from Kansas to Wisconsin, resulting in over 400 reports of damaging wind and numerous tornadoes. Most of the damage across our area occurred from south-central Minnesota through west-central Wisconsin. The strongest tornado damage occurred in Hartland.||Before the thunderstorms, strong southerly winds led to record high temperature at many sites across the Upper Midwest. Temperatures warmed into the mid to upper 50s across much of central Minnesota and western Wisconsin, and even exceeded 60 degrees across southern Minnesota. The warm temperatures melted what was left of the snowpack from the December 10 winter storm, which led to widespread dense fog through much of the morning and afternoon.||After the thunderstorms, strong gradient winds and widespread wind gusts in excess of 50 mph developed for several hours late Wednesday night and into the overnight hours. The Redwood Falls airport measured a gust of 78 mph at 11:30 PM.||Temperatures quickly fell below freezing across western and central Minnesota Wednesday night, causing rain to change over to a wintry mix of freezing drizzle and snow. Snowfall accumulations of 1-4 inches, along with the strong gusty winds, led to low visibility and travel hazards late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.

The first damage observed was a bent road sign near the tornado origin point. A path of tree and utility pole damage continued to the northeast before ending just south of I-90. Several trees were uprooted.

This tornado developed to the east of Alden, damaging trees and a large building that housed farm equipment. It then continued to the northeast, damaging additional trees before dissipating in a field.

A fast-moving tornado touched down to the southwest of Hartland and moved into town, damaging numerous buildings, trees, and utility poles. The damage in the southern residential part of town was mainly tree and roof damage. As the tornado tracked into the center of town, more significant damage was observed to buildings along Broadway Street. The most significant damage was to two buildings along Broadway and Johnson in the center of town with significant damage to the walls of low-rise commercial buildings. More tree and roof damage was observed to the northeast with some branches observed along State Highway 13. The tornado dissipated to the northeast in a field with no further damage observed.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:55 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:23 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:28 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.

Albert Lea (AEL), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:56 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

124 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 125 of them

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.