Unrated tornado, Waubun to Mahnomen, Minnesota, June 24, 2023

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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

Unrated

Date

June 24, 2023

Touchdown

3:52 PM CDT (20:52 UTC)

Lifted

3:54 PM CDT (20:54 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mahnomen County

Touchdown point

47.190, -96.060

Lift-off point

47.194, -96.060

Record number

2306241452-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• 30 sec spin up in open field.
• Large hardwood trees uprooted. Storm lifted up fuel tankers that contained 250 gallons of fuel and dropped them on the other side of the barn hitting a shed and forcing it off its foundation
• Two broken power line poles with tree damage to the north
• Quonset caved in on one side

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

Surface low pressure system tracked across the North Dakota/South Dakota border creating an environment supporting the threat for low top supercells in Southeastern North Dakota into adjacent West Central Minnesota. Several low-top supercells developed and tracked along portions of the Minnesota Red River Valley. Portions of Norman, Polk, Becker, and Mahnomen counties saw multiple tornadoes. Large hail and damaging winds accompanied some of these storms, and flash flooding in some locations as well.

Spotter called with reports of a tornado with intermittent touchdown near Waubun, MN. It occurred in open fields, which mitigated any damage. Therefore, the rating of EF-U has been assigned with an estimated path width and length.

Brief spin up was reported in an open field which mitigated any damage. Therefore, the rating of EF-U has been assigned with estimated path width and length.

This tornado touched down south of Mahnomen at 4:15 PM. The highest damage it caused was rated as an EF-2. Among the damage it caused as it continued across its 6 mile path was trees snapped and uprooted (both hard and soft wood), metal garage slid off its foundation and collapsed, crop damage, Quonset caved in on one side, roofing blown off homes, broken power line poles, and lifting fuel tankers full of 250 gallons of fuel and throwing them at a barn. Damage dollar amounts are estimated.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:23 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:42 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:52 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 2023 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.