EF2 tornado, Becker County, Minnesota, July 6, 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 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, as surveyed

EF2, preliminary

Date

July 6, 2026

Touchdown

7:47 PM CDT (00:47 UTC)

Lifted

8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

9.9 miles (15.9 km)

Path width

1,100 yards (1006 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

County

Becker County

Touchdown point

46.888, -95.918

Lift-off point

46.846, -95.731

Highest wind the damage implies

115 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FGF

The office's name for it

Floyd Lake

Survey last edited

July 28, 2026

Record number

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

1 injury can be directly attributed to the tornado as a homeowner

was injured in their home when their roof was removed by the

tornado. The second injury was after the tornado during the

cleanup stage and could due to shock or trauma according to the

county emergency manager. The details and circumstances of the third injury are unknown as the individual was not transported by EMS.

The tornado appears to have begun about northwest of

Wheeler Lake, tracking over the lake where it caused roof damage

to a few homes and snapped the trunks of a few large oak and

poplar trees on the west side of the lake. The tornado continued

east where it appears to have widened to around a half mile in

width along the western shore of (Big) Floyd Lake. This is where

the highest rated survey damage occurred with a few anchored and modestly built garages were collapsed. A few other more questionably built garages and outbuildings were swept clean

in the Oakland Beach neighborhood along with widespread roofing

and tree damage. It was in this same area that a 6 by 12 foot

horse trailer was lofted and carried about 1/8sm from its stables. The tornado then continued across the lake onto the eastern shore inflicting more roof and tree damage. The last visible surveyed

damage was near the corner of Co HWY 25 and Anchor Rd about 3

miles east of the southern end of (Big) Floyd Lake. Based on Satellite the tornado appears to have tracked another 3 miles ESE from where it crossed Co HWY 25.

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

27 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• Significant loss of roofing with some trusses missing. Garage mostly collapsed with anchoring present. Home fared better with only moderate roof damage.
• Large trees over 18 inches in diameter snapped 15-20 ft above the ground
• A horse trailer was lifted and carried from the stables about 1/8sm away and deposited here by the tornado, wind speed unknown
• Total destruction of garages, walls were achored to bolts within cinder blocks providing less than expected resistance.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:45 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:40 UTC and running to 01:21 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 19:48 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), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:47 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

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

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.