F2 tornado, Litchville to Lisbon, North Dakota, August 15, 1999

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 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

F2

Date

August 15, 1999

Touchdown

8:57 PM CDT (01:57 UTC)

Path length

28.5 miles (45.9 km)

Path width

283 yards (259 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.2 million

Counties

LaMoure, Barnes and Ransom counties

Touchdown point

46.630, -98.200

Lift-off point

46.520, -97.680

Record number

579

The tornado began south and west of Litchville, travelling mostly through open country before it crossed briefly into Lamoure county. It then crossed into Ransom county, where it dissipated north of Lisbon.

Most of the damage from the tornado occurred roughly 3 miles northeast of Fort Ransom, just across the Sheyenne River. One farm had a wood barn and 2 large pole barns completely destroyed. At another nearby farm, another wood barn and a pole barn were destroyed, some debris deposited several hundred feet away. Numerous large trees were broken and a feeding car was thrown a half a mile away. Thousands of large trees surrounding the path of the tornado were snapped in two, many of these along the Sheyenne River Valley.

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

Jamestown (JMS), 69 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:55 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.