Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2000

F0 tornado, Maxbass, North Dakota, June 11, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Bottineau County on June 11, 2000, touching down at 5:51 PM CDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    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 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. 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 11, 2000
Touchdown
5:51 PM CDT (22:51 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Bottineau County
Touchdown point
48.750, -101.280
Lift-off point
48.750, -101.280
Record number
284

What the Weather Service recorded

Brief touchdown in open field.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS BIS issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:45 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:24 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS
22:45 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningBIS
23:45 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS
00:48 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:04 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 air that afternoon

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.

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 224 km from the path. June 11, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2000-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -360, lifted condensation level 1248 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2000-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 237 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-360 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1248 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
305 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 224 km from the path. June 12, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2000-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 919 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 1920 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2000-06-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 155 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
919 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2176 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1920 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
289 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
11.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Minot_afb (MIB), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:57 UTC78.862.6130° 15 kt251010.8
21:55 UTC73.468100° 13 kt1008.1-TSRA
23:55 UTC66.260.860° 18 kt1008.8TS

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 11, 2000

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 115:14 PM CDTF0Ward, ND4.040
June 116:08 PM CDTF0McHenry, ND3.030
June 116:45 PM CDTF0York, NE0.50
June 116:56 PM CDTF0Oliver, ND8.040
June 117:00 PM CDTF0York, NE0.510
June 117:20 PM CDTF0York, NE0.510
June 117:45 PM CDTF0Benson, ND0.520
June 118:05 PM CDTF0Benson, ND2.0200
June 1110:59 PM CDTF0Fillmore, NE1.020

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.