Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2001

F0 tornado, Ventura, North Dakota, July 18, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across McIntosh County on July 18, 2001, touching down at 8:30 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
July 18, 2001
Touchdown
8:30 PM CDT (01:30 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
McIntosh County
Touchdown point
45.900, -99.550
Lift-off point
45.900, -99.550
Record number
305

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touched down in open country. The tornado destroyed 137 bales of hay.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Bismarck, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 18, 2:40 PM CDT, 5 hours 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 18, 2:40 PM CDT, 5 hours 50 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
240 PM CDT WED JUL 18 2001

AREA RADARS AND SATELLITE INDICATE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN
EASTERN MONTANA MOVING NORTHEAST WITH AN UPPER LEVEL VORT MAX.
DEWPOINTS IN WESTERN ND ARE IN THE UPPER 50S AND LOWER 60S WITH
DEWPOINTS IN THE LOWER 70S IN CENTRAL ND. AN INVERTED TROUGH IS JUST
EAST OF A LINE FROM MINOT TO BISMARCK. THE INDICIES INDICATE
INSTABILITY ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA. CONSEQUENTLY EXPECT
THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THE REGION AGAIN THIS EVENING...WITH THE
POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS GREATEST ALONG AND EAST OF THE
TROUGH. WITH THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE EAST OF THE STATE AND AN UPPER
LEVEL TROUGH TO THUE WEST THROUGH THE WEEKEND...DON'T SEE AN END TO
THE CONVECTIVE POTENTIAL UNTIL MONDAY.  MOS SEEMS TO BE A LITTLE
WARM ON HIGHS AND WILL TREND TOWARD AVN.

.BIS...NONE.
TSW

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 18, 7:45 PM CDT, 45 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND

745 PM CDT WED JUL 18 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...

           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0742 PM    ELDRIDGE                  ND   .75 INCH HAIL

07/18/01   STUTSMAN
Local storm report, Jul 18, 7:55 PM CDT, 35 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND

755 PM CDT WED JUL 18 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...

           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0751 PM    ELDRIDGE                  ND   1 INCH HAIL

07/18/01   STUTSMAN                       REPORTED BY HAM RADIO

                                          OPERATOR.
Local storm report, Jul 18, 8:30 PM CDT, 0 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND

830 PM CDT WED JUL 18 2001

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...

           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0824 PM    JAMESTOWN                 ND   1 INCH HAIL

07/18/01   STUTSMAN                       REPORTED BY HAM RADIO

                                          OPERATOR.

The surface observations

Mobridge (MBG), 77 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:27 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 2001 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 18, 2001

25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 184:34 PM CDTF0Pembina, ND0.525
July 185:00 PM CDTF0Kittson, MN0.525
July 185:55 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.525
July 185:57 PM CDTF0Griggs, ND0.525
July 186:04 PM CDTF0Griggs, ND0.525
July 186:05 PM CDTF3Nelson, ND5.0150$200,000
July 186:09 PM CDTF0Griggs, ND1.025
July 186:23 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.5100
July 186:25 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.5100
July 186:35 PM CDTF0Griggs, ND0.525
July 186:58 PM CDTF1Thayer, NE2.040$50,000
July 187:00 PM CDTF0Steele, ND0.525
July 187:00 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.525
July 187:04 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.525
July 187:20 PM CDTF0Nelson, ND0.525
July 188:00 PM CDTF0Steele, ND0.525
July 188:00 PM CDTF0Griggs, ND0.525
July 188:05 PM CDTF0Lake of the Woods, MN0.525
July 188:40 PM CDTF2Edmunds, SD1.0100
July 188:45 PM CDTF0McPherson, SD0.550
July 188:53 PM CDTF1LaMoure, ND3.050
July 189:05 PM CDTF1Marshall, MN1.050
July 189:19 PM CDTF0Faulk, SD0.325
July 1812:04 AM CDTF0Grand Forks, ND0.525
July 1812:14 AM CDTF0Grand Forks, ND1.025

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.