EF1 tornado, Danvers to Benson, Minnesota, May 15, 2025

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 15, 2025

Touchdown

1:34 PM CDT (18:34 UTC)

Lifted

1:38 PM CDT (18:38 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Swift County

Touchdown point

45.274, -95.575

Lift-off point

45.312, -95.584

Record number

2505151234-01

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

• Chaser video shows tornado moving through a grove of trees.
• tornado dissipated in a field per video.
• Approximate beginning of tornado per storm chaser video.
• Tornado hit some trees per video

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

A very strong low pressure system produced storms on Thursday, May 15th, 2025 across the Upper Midwest. Two main areas of storms formed across south and west central Minnesota during the early afternoon.||One line of storms formed over west central Minnesota, producing a few tornadoes in Chippewa, Swift, and western Stearns counties. Another line of storms had many rotating wall clouds reported over south central Minnesota and into the Twin Cities metro.

Video provided from storm chaser showed a condensation funnel and ground circulation. The tornado moved across a grove of trees and knocked down large trees. Its maximum wind was estimated at 75 mph.

A tornado developed approximately 3 miles to the SSE of Benson. Visible debris was reported by trained spotters and law enforcement. The tornado caused damage to some farm outbuildings before lifting just north of the intersection of US-12 and 10th St NE. Multiple damage photos and the detailed track were provided, so a virtual storm survey was conducted on this tornado. Its maximum wind was estimated at 95 mph.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:17 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:46 UTC and running to 19:38 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 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.

Benson Municipal (BBB), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 166 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:33 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 2025 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

34 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.