Tornadoes · United States · Minnesota · 2022

EF1 tornado, Nickerson to Kingsdale, Minnesota, July 11, 2022

From Nickerson to Kingsdale, this EF1 tornado ran 4.6 miles across Pine County on July 11, 2022, touching down at 3:22 PM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
July 11, 2022
Touchdown
3:22 PM CDT (20:22 UTC)
Lifted
3:30 PM CDT (20:30 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
4.6 miles (7.4 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pine County
Touchdown point
46.365, -92.420
Lift-off point
46.336, -92.334
Record number
2207111422-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated thunderstorms developed during the day on the 11th on the backside of an area of low pressure over Lake Superior. While most of the storms were neither strong nor severe, one storm over rural northeastern Pine County interacted with a lake breeze boundary off Lake Superior and developed a weak, brief tornado over a portion of the Nemadji State Forest. The tornado was rated EF-1 based on tree damage visible on satellite analysis.

A tornado was confirmed via both a radar tornadic debris signature and a comparison of satellite imagery before and after the storm. The rating was estimated by satellite observed damage to trees along the path. The maximum winds were estimated to be 100 mph.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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), 12:00Z

8.4 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. July 11, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 12:00Z on 2022-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 711 joules per kilogram, CIN -47, lifted condensation level 1020 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2022-07-11The 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 -60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
711 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-47 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1083 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1020 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.2
Supercell composite
-2.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), 00:00Z

3.6 hours after it, 192 km from the path. July 12, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Minneapolis, MN at 00:00Z on 2022-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 313 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 1765 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2022-07-12The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
313 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
740 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1765 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Duluth radar (KDLH), 56 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:24 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:22 UTCTORNADO3 Nw BeldenPine, MNSTART OF EF 1 RATED TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED MAX WIND SPEED OF 100 MPH. CONFIRMED USING RADAR OBSERVATIONS AND SATELLITE IMAGERY.
20:25 UTCTORNADO1 Nw BeldenPine, MNEND OF PATH OF EF 1 TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED MAX WIND SPEED OF 100 MPH.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 11, 2022

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1111:33 PM EDTEF0Genesee, MI7.440$70,000

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.