EF1 tornado, Oslo to Plainview, Minnesota, April 17, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 17, 2026

Touchdown

2:33 PM CDT (19:33 UTC)

Lifted

2:55 PM CDT (19:55 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

12.4 miles (20.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Olmsted and Wabasha counties

Touchdown point

44.042, -92.410

Lift-off point

44.185, -92.263

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ARX

The office's name for it

NW of Elgin, MN

Survey last edited

April 22, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado began in a northeast neighborhood of Rochester and traveled northeast into more rural areas. The first portion of the tornado was weak and intermittent with EF0 damage. North of 65th St, the tornado path became more continuous and intensified to produce approximately 100 mph winds with tree and farm outbuilding damage.

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

131 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ARX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 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 strong EF-2 tornado began on the northeast side of Stewartville resulting in damage to several homes. The tornado then moved northeast through rural areas of Olmsted County while being highly visible on MNDOT cameras and from Rochester. This tornado eventually crossed I-90, hitting a semi-trailer and injuring the occupant, before moving northwest of Simpson. A farmstead near Simpson took a direct hit from the tornado where a single-wide manufactured home was rolled and farm outbuildings were destroyed. The tornado continued northeast into a neighborhood along Marion Road where several homes were rendered uninhabitable due to a collapse of their exterior walls and roof. Numerous other residences sustained window, roof, and outbuilding damage as well. The tornado continued through this neighborhood before dissipating along Timberidge Court between Rochester and Marion. Two more individuals were also injured in this area while sheltering in their home from the tornado.

This EF-1 tornado began in northeast portions of Rochester resulting in minor roof damage to a couple of homes before moving northeast through rural portions of Olmsted County, damaging trees and a few electrical poles before moving into Wabasha County.

This tornado moved into Wabasha County from Olmsted County and damaged outbuildings and one residence along its path before dissipating near the intersection of County Road 2 and 550th Street.

This strong EF-2 tornado began in rural portions of Olmsted County east of Viola where it damaged some farm outbuildings as it moved northeast. As the tornado approached the Wabasha County line, it strengthened and significantly damaged a farmstead, removing large sections of the roof and other portions of the home and outbuildings. It then continued northeast into Wabasha County.

This tornado continued into Wabasha County from Olmsted County where it damaged one residence, some farm outbuildings, power poles, and trees before dissipating near 230th avenue.

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

41 minutes of warning. NWS ARX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:52 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

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.

The La Crosse radar (KARX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:35 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.