F0 tornado, Mercer, North Dakota, November 1, 2000

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.

Rating

F0

Date

November 1, 2000

Touchdown

3:58 PM CST (21:58 UTC)

Path length

20.0 miles (32.2 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McLean County

Touchdown point

47.400, -100.830

Lift-off point

47.450, -101.020

Record number

582

The tornado outbreak on the 1st of November was a rare and unusual weather phenomena to occur so late in the year in NorthDakota. The last recorded tornado to occur in the state was October 11th 1979 in Sargent county in southeastern North Dakota.Several tornadoes, with five distinct paths, hit south central North Dakota causing property damage and injuries. The majorityof the damage and injuries occurred in the Bismarck area. Forty two homes sustained minor to major damage. The tornadoeswere rated F0 and F1 on the Fujita scale, packing winds up to 90 mph. Another unusual phenomena observed were that thesetornadoes traveled from east to west. This was caused by an intense low pressure system , centered over north central SouthDakota, spinning counterclockwise, allowing the low level flow over Bismarck to move east to west. At the same time periodthese tornadoes were occurring, snow began to fall in the far western area of North Dakota. Winter storm watches and warningswere posted across north central and western North Dakota that afternoon.

Tornado touched down in open country skipping in a west direction across the country side.

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

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:29 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 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 Bismarck radar (KBIS), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:58 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 2000 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.