Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2000

F1 tornado, Bismarck to Wilton, North Dakota, November 1, 2000

From Bismarck to Wilton, this F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Burleigh County on November 1, 2000, touching down at 1:55 PM CST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2.

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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
November 1, 2000
Touchdown
1:55 PM CST (19:55 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
County
Burleigh County
Touchdown point
46.880, -100.770
Lift-off point
46.930, -100.850
Record number
583

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touched down near highway 83 in north Bismarck and traveled in a west..northwest direction. Forty two homes sustained minor to moderate damage and injuring two people.

Tornado touched down in a sparsely developed area in open country along highway 1804. The tornado skipped in a west..northwest direction. One home was heavily damaged. Several bales of hay were destroyed. The tornado crossed the Missouri River into Morton county.

Tornado touched down in open country and moved in a west northwest direction. The tornado remained in open country moving into McLean county.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:33 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WarningBIS
21:05 UTC21:45 UTCTornado 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 18:29 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

7.9 hours before the tornado, 17 km from the path. November 1, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2000-11-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -68221, lifted condensation level 610 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2000-11-01The 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 178 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-68221 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
610 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
178 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.1 hours after it, 17 km from the path. November 2, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2000-11-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 32 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 716 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 2000-11-02The 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 -55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 11 knots.1939Sfc1 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
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
245 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
716 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-21 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bismarck (BIS), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:52 UTC575660° 13 kt993.2
19:27 UTC57.257.270° 14 kt22991.9
19:35 UTC57.255.480° 12 kt20991.5
19:52 UTC585690° 12 kt991.2
19:59 UTC5955.490° 14 kt991.2
20:14 UTC60.855.470° 12 kt990.5
20:25 UTC60.855.480° 9 kt990.5TS
20:52 UTC5950130° 11 kt990.5TS
21:02 UTC57.248.2140° 13 kt26990.5TSGSRA
21:09 UTC55.450130° 9 kt990.5-TSRA
21:18 UTC55.451.8130° 6 kt990.5
21:27 UTC55.451.8120° 5 kt990.2TS
21:52 UTC5349160° 9 kt990.2TS

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

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:52 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.

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 November 1, 2000

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 12:33 PM CSTF1Burleigh, ND22.0100$60,000
November 13:05 PM CSTF0Burleigh, ND2.040
November 12:43 PM MSTF0Morton, ND12.040
November 13:58 PM CSTF0McLean, ND20.040
November 15:25 PM CSTF1Kandiyohi, MN0.530

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.