EF1 tornado, Hinckley to Friesland, Minnesota, May 30, 2022

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

May 30, 2022

Touchdown

7:50 PM CDT (00:50 UTC)

Lifted

7:54 PM CDT (00:54 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Pine County

Touchdown point

46.012, -92.930

Lift-off point

46.060, -92.934

Record number

2205301850-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DLH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Nine power poles snapped at various points along Lone Pine Road.
• 40x40 foot gabled metal roof section torn off and tossed. Section of barn was either under construction or open-air underneath.
• Piece of HVAC Equipment on roof turned over and moved several feet.
• Entire row of pine trees downed - several snapped halfway up but most are uprooted or just leaning facing north-northwest.

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

A strong area of low pressure across the Northern Plains lifted a warm front across the Northland on Memorial Day morning. Showers and storms moved through during the morning hours with the atmosphere recovering during the afternoon hours. A few of the storms were severe during the morning and produced small hail and tree damage. An arc of thunderstorms developed across southwestern Minnesota and adjacent areas of Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa by the mid-afternoon hours and moved to the northeast and across the Northland for the late afternoon and evening hours. These storms were much stronger and contained very strong winds that produced widespread damage across the region. Additionally, there were a few embedded tornadoes with the storms with the strongest tornadoes producing EF-1 damage in the Deer River and Hinckley areas.

Damage sustained to a fast food restaurant in Hinckley, including broken windows, a damaged rooftop HVAC unit, and evidence of metal flashing damage, is believed to be the beginning of a tornado that then tracked across Interstate 35 in a north-northwest direction, crossing the railroad tracks near 7th St NE. The majority of the damage was trees uprooted with several snapped along the way. Aerial imagery provided by the Pine County Sheriff���s Department shows fairly weak but convergent tree fall between I-35 and near Highway 61 and Owl Drive between a distinct intensification where the treefall becomes much more extensive and a metal roof section was lifted off a local business. The tornado then tracked across Highway 61 and traversed north causing mainly tree damage with at least one home losing some roof shingles. The end of the tornado path is estimated due to the track moving into a much less wooded wetland area. NWS Duluth sincerely appreciates the drone imagery provided by the Pine County Sheriff���s Office to aid in the assessment of this storm damage. Peak winds were estimated to be 95 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:32 UTC and running to 02:15 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Hinckley (04W), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Duluth radar (KDLH), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:51 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 2022 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

36 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.