EF0 tornado, Sargeant to Oslo, Minnesota, April 17, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

1:46 PM CDT (18:46 UTC)

Lifted

1:57 PM CDT (18:57 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

2.8 miles (4.5 km)

Path width

110 yards (101 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Mower and Dodge counties

Touchdown point

43.847, -92.781

Lift-off point

43.870, -92.735

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ARX

The office's name for it

S of Oslo, MN

Survey last edited

April 21, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

This EF0 tornado began near the Dodge and Mower County line before entering rural Dodge County. The tornado caused minor damage to a grain silo and downed several trees. The track continued northeast and weakened/roped out. This tornado was captured in video from MNDOT cameras south of Rochester. Additional adjustments to the track are likely once high resolution satellite imagery is reviewed.

Written by NWS ARX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

36 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Cross point on Interstate. EF1 damage to trees on south side.
• Garage buckled, but rest of the house looks intact.
• Open ended outbuilding ripped up and blown into trees.
• Some issues with garage foundation. House lost some roof covering.

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

A prolific tornado outbreak occurred during the afternoon on April 17th, with 5 tornadoes occurring in southeast Minnesota. Two were EF-2 intensity, one of which was highly visible from Rochester, Minnesota as it tracked from Stewartville to Marion, Minnesota, resulting in numerous homes being damaged. Some of these homes were rendered uninhabitable. Additionally, the storms that produced these tornadoes also brought up to golf ball sized hail in the Rochester area and surrounding communities.

This weak tornado began just south of the Dodge and Mower County line before moving into Dodge County.

This weak tornado moved into Dodge County from Mower County, impacting mostly rural areas of Dodge County. This tornado damaged a grain silo and downed several trees before dissipating.

This weak tornado began in rural areas of southeast Dodge County and moved northeast before crossing into Olmsted County. This tornado mainly resulted in minor damage to trees and farm outbuildings along its path.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:43 UTC and running to 21:49 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, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 17:03 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.

Dodge Center (TOB), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:46 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 2026 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

88 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

All 89 of them

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.