EF0 tornado, Redlake to Tenstrike, Minnesota, July 26, 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

July 26, 2021

Touchdown

5:23 PM CDT (22:23 UTC)

Lifted

5:36 PM CDT (22:36 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

8.5 miles (13.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Crop damage

$100,000

County

Beltrami County

Touchdown point

47.780, -94.860

Lift-off point

47.673, -94.768

Record number

2107261623-01

Isolated severe thunderstorms formed during the afternoon, producing heavy impacts as the result of large hail, damaging wind gusts, and several tornadoes.

Initial report of a tornado on Lower Red Lake, which moved onshore at Red Lake and tracked for less than one mile. The tornado lifted by 515 PM CDT. Damaging downburst winds, heavy rain, and large hail continued to track southeastward with this storm. Damage was reported to the Tribal College, as well as other homes and buildings in the area. A light pole was snapped and several signs were toppled. Several large trees were snapped.

This tornado formed near the shore of Lower Red Lake and tracked to the southeast. It crossed MN HWY 1 near the intersection with BIA15 and penetrated deeply into a large evergreen and oak forest. Trees were snapped and debris was tangled, though most debris tracked with the southeast moving storm. The tornado appeared to have dissipated around 522 PM CDT, after crossing BIA18, roughly 6 miles ESE of Redby.

This tornado was likely wrapped in downburst winds, heavy rain, and large ail. The tornado crossed several County and Township roads as it tracked to the southeast, with numerous poplar and oak trees snapped along it's path. It appears to have crossed portions of Dark Lake, Whitefish Lake, and Sandy Lake in Nebish and Hagali Townships, before dissipating. near the western edge of Gull Lake, about 4 WNW of Tenstrike.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:13 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:23 UTC and running to 03:28 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:48 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 Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 189 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:24 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

2 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.