EF2 tornado, Starbuck to Carlos, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 30, 2022

Touchdown

4:27 PM CDT (21:27 UTC)

Lifted

4:47 PM CDT (21:47 UTC)

On the ground

20 minutes

Path length

19.6 miles (31.6 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Pope and Douglas counties

Touchdown point

45.726, -95.396

Lift-off point

45.972, -95.193

Record number

2205301527-01

58 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 120 mph.

• Garage demolished. Part of roof material removed.
• Tree damage in all directions but no house damage. Eastern edge of tornado.
• Extensive tree damage. Could be from earlier in the month.
• Western edge of tornado was about 50 yards west of here.

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

A strong synoptic cyclone swinging into the Northern Plains set the stage for a late Spring severe weather outbreak on May 30th. Discrete and semi-discrete supercells developed during the afternoon ahead of an arcing cold front and a nearby surface low. These storms quickly traveled northeast while gradually growing upscale into bowing line segments as storms merged together and new cells formed. During this time, hail and tornadoes occurred; the strongest being an EF2 through Forada, MN. The bowing line segments became dominant and a wind event unfolded.||Strong and broad synoptic lift, little capping, and questionable mid-level shear likely allowed for upscale growth. This caused storm interactions and competing updrafts which may have limited mesocyclone longevity and strength. While property was damaged, no lives were lost on the last day of a holiday weekend when many people were outdoors camping or doing other recreational activities.

A tornado developed about 4 miles west of Starbuck and tracked northeast. A small outbuilding was completely destroyed and debris was spread north northwest. A truck and trailer were overturned on Highway 28. Maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph.

A tornado originated on the east side of Lake Reno in Pope County. At first, it damaged about a dozen trees, but quickly became more intense and broke or uprooted several hundred trees before entering Douglas County. Maximum winds for the Pope County portion were estimated at 105 mph.

A tornado entered Douglas County from Pope County, just east of Lake Reno. It immediately demolished a garage and broke many hundreds of trees before hitting an area of homes along the east side of Maple Lake in the city of Forada. Dozens of homes had roofs torn off, garages and sheds destroyed. It threw a car several hundred feet. The tornado tore part of the roof off from the fire station. It continued beyond Forada and hit numerous farmsteads before hitting the west side of the city of Nelson, where a farm lost most outbuildings and a home lost its roof. The tornado continued moving northeast, hitting more farms, before dissipating several miles east of Carlos. Maximum winds were estimated to be 120 mph.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:05 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:37 UTC and running to 22:56 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 0.15 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.

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 175 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:26 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.