EF1 tornado, Conger, Minnesota, May 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

May 17, 2026

Touchdown

10:14 PM CDT (03:14 UTC)

Lifted

10:20 PM CDT (03:20 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Freeborn County

Touchdown point

43.584, -93.572

Lift-off point

43.597, -93.561

Highest wind the damage implies

105 mph

Surveyed by

NWS MPX

The office's name for it

SW Conger

Survey last edited

June 18, 2026

Record number

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

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MPX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Major loss of wood and metal roof panels to two farm outbuildings. Concrete silo mostly undamaged.
• Garage door blown in with some damage to metal and wood roof panels.
• Several large branches broken off trees, one large tree uprooted, and at least one large tree snapped halfway up its base.
• Swirls in farm field and debris from damaged buildings show the tornado moved northeast.

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

A line of storms developed along a cold front Sunday afternoon, stretching from South Dakota all the way down through central Kansas. As the storms progressed eastward through the evening, they moved into a favorable environment for tornado and severe wind development. Several tornadoes were observed across northeast Iowa, southeast South Dakota, and extreme southern Minnesota. There were two tornadoes in Freeborn County and one tornado in Martin County.||In addition to the tornadoes, there were reports of wind damage across southern MN. Minor structural damage and scattered tree damage suggest wind speeds around 60 to 75 mph were likely tied to the thunderstorms.

This tornado's track and timing are based on drone and ground survey from the Freeborn County Sheriff's Office. The tornado appears to have started in a field just south of 160th Street, then damaged several trees and buildings on the corner of 160th Street and 650th Avenue. The tornado then continued to travel northeast, damaging additional trees and buildings before dissipating in a field just south of 170th Street. The maximum wind speed was estimated at 105 mph.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS MPX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:52 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:12 UTC and running to 04:25 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:07 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 Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:14 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

47 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.