F0 tornado, Amidon to Regent, North Dakota, July 3, 2001

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

July 3, 2001

Touchdown

2:41 PM MDT (20:41 UTC)

Path length

9.0 miles (14.5 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Slope and Hettinger counties

Touchdown point

46.580, -102.970

Lift-off point

46.520, -102.880

Record number

289

Multiple brief touchdown's in open country. Reported by three different sources. The sighting occurred just west of the Slope-Hettinger county line.

Multi brief touchdowns in open country.

Briefly touched down in open country.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS BIS issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:41 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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.

NWS Bismarck, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 3, 2:00 PM MDT, 41 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
300 PM CDT TUE JUL 3 2001

SFC HIGH ADVANCING FROM THE NW INTO CNTRL ND WITH NWLY WINDS AND
DWPTS IN THE LOWER 50S. ATMOS UNSTABLE ENOUGH IN SWRN/FAR S CNTRL
ND...WITH CAPE VALUES 200-800...TO SET OFF ISOLATED AND ELEVATED
TSTMS THAT BEGAN AFTER SUNRISE AND CONTINUE TO DEVELOP THIS AFTN
NEAR CNTRL SD BORDER AND MOVE SEWD INTO SD AS THEY GROW STRONGER.
ETA FCST SOUNDINGS ALSO SUGGEST THIS AREA WOULD REACH CONVECTIVE
TEMPS IN THE LOWER 80S...AND CU FIELD BEGINNING TO DEVELOP FROM BIS
TO DIK AND SWD AS TEMPS RISE INTO THE LOW TO MID 80S. WL PUT EVE
POPS IN THIS AREA.

SFC HIGH PUSHES IN ON WED WITH RETURN SELY FLOW IN THE AFTN FAR
WEST. FCST SOUNDINGS SHOW TEMPS IN THE LOW TO MID 80S...BUT
CONVECTIVE TEMPS IN THE UPPER 80S AND IN THE 90S. DRY SFC AIR AND NO
CAPE TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT. ON THU...STRONG SLY FLOW INCREASES SFC
DWPTS AND AFTN CAPES REACH 1000 OR SO...BUT MID LEVEL CAP BUILDS TO
INHIBIT CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT. ETA HAS +12 TO +14 OVER MUCH OF CWA.
AVN HINTS AT MCS DEVELOPMENT LATE THU NIGHT ACROSS NRN ND AFTER EVE
CONVECTION IN ERN MT. IF CONVECTION DEVELOPS IN NERN MT IT COULD
CONTINUE NORTH OF THE CAP AT THE CANADIAN BORDER...BUT WL LEAVE OUT
CHC TSTMS LATE THU NIGHT FOR ISN AND MOT FOR NOW.

AVN HAS SFC TROUGH IN WRN ND FRI MORNING...AND ADVANCES IT ACROSS
THE STATE ON FRI...SO WL KEEP CHC TSTMS FOR FRI. NEXT HINT OF
CONVECTION IS SAT NIGHT/SUN MORNING FROM THE MRF...BUT ECMWF NOT AS
STRONG WITH THIS SHORTWAVE AND WL NOT MENTION IN EXTENDED. OTHERWISE
H500 RIDGE REMAINS IN PLACE WITH SEASONABLE TEMPS AND MAINLY DRY
WEATHER.

.BIS...NONE.
VINING

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.

Dickinson (DIK), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 167 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:39 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 2001 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.