Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2002
F0 tornado, Lawton to Lankin, North Dakota, August 23, 2002
From Lawton to Lankin, this F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Ramsey and Walsh counties on August 23, 2002, touching down at 7:20 PM CDT and reaching 25 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 23, 2002
- Touchdown
- 7:20 PM CDT (00:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.0 miles (3.2 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Ramsey and Walsh counties
- Touchdown point
- 48.320, -98.330
- Lift-off point
- 48.320, -98.270
- Record number
- 819
What the Weather Service recorded
This tornado crossed into Walsh county.
This tornado originated in Ramsey county.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:04 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:32 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 23:32 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 00:04 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 00:04 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 00:41 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
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 20:40 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.
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 Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Aug 23, 1:09 PM CDT, 6 hours 11 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Aug 23, 1:09 PM CDT, 6 hours 11 minutes before
FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND 109 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002 ...FORECAST CHALLENGE WILL BE PRECIPITATION CHANCES OVERNIGHT... .CURRENT OBSERVATIONS... WEAK SURFACE FRONT LOCATED WELL NORTH OF THE BORDER AND IS SLOWLY MOVING SOUTH. SHORT WAVE EVIDENT ON WATER VAPOR IMAGERY ALONG AND AHEAD OF FRONT. A FEW LIGHTNING STRIKES HAVE BEEN NOTED ALONG FRONT. DEWPOINTS ACROSS AREA REMAIN IN THE MID 60S WITH ALL MODELS UNDERDOING THE LOW LEVEL MOISTURE. .SHORT TERM... MAIN CHALLENGE IS THUNDER OVERNIGHT. SOME LOW LEVEL MOISTURE PRESENT BUT LIMITED ABOVE THIS LAYER. SOME WEAK SURFACE/850MB CONVERGENCE AND INSTABILITY TONIGHT. WILL PUT ISOLATED MENTION ACROSS MUCH OF THE FORECAST AREA(FA) WITH SLIGHTLY HIGHER POPS ACROSS NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. .MID TERM... WEAK SURFACE HIGH WILL PUSH FRONT SOUTH OF FA ON SATURDAY AND WILL KEEP PRECIPITATION OUT OF THE REGION UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT. BY SUNDAY NIGHT...UPPER LEVEL LOW EJECTS OUT OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND INTO THE NORTHERN HIGH PLAINS. SEVERAL WAVES EXPECTED TO ROTATE AROUND SYSTEM AND WILL BRING CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS TO THE RED RIVER VALLEY AND AREAS WEST INTO MONDAY...HOWEVER MOISTURE WILL BE LIMITED WITH A BLOCKING PATTERN TO THE SOUTH. .EXTENDED FORECAST... ECMWF IS ODD MODEL OUT IS SHOWING AMPLIFYING UPR LOW AND COLD AIR DROPPING SOUTHEAST TOWARD NRN MN BY 12Z THU. NCEP ENSEMBLES/NOGAPS/MRF/CANADIAN ALL GO AGAINST THIS SHOWING MAIN POLAR JET AND COLD AIR WELL NORTH ACROSS NRN CANADA WITH MUCH WEAKER 50H SYSTEMS DROPPING THRU NRN PLAINS TUE-WED TIME FRAME. CANADIAN AND NOGAPS ARE EVEN WEAKER THAN THE MRF AND WOULD IMPLY ONLY SMALL CHANCES OF PCPN TUE-WED VERSUS HEAVIER QPF OF MRF. BELIEVE THIS MAY BE RIGHT. WILL HOWEVER STILL KEEP CHC IN PER CURRENT EXTENDED FOR TUE-WED...THEN DRY THU-FRI AND STILL MILD WITH NEAR NORMAL TEMPS. .FGF...NONE DONAVON/RIDDLE
In the hours before
Local storm report, Aug 23, 6:30 PM CDT, 50 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
630 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0628 PM 2 E MOUNTAIN ND 1.00 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 PEMBINA
JHLocal storm report, Aug 23, 6:32 PM CDT, 48 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
632 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0620 PM 5 NW BISBEE ND .75 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 TOWNER REPORTED BY CO-OP OBSERVER.
0630 PM 3 S MOUNTAIN ND TORNADO
08/23/02 PEMBINA REPORTED BY CO-OP OBSERVER.
DPORTERLocal storm report, Aug 23, 6:40 PM CDT, 40 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
640 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0635 PM 2 E MOUNTAIN ND 2.00 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 PEMBINA REPORTED BY CO-OP
OBSERVER.
DPORTERLocal storm report, Aug 23, 6:53 PM CDT, 27 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
653 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0600 PM 2 NE CONCRETE ND .88 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 PEMBINA REPORTED BY PUBLIC.
0615 PM 5 NW BISBEE ND .75 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 TOWNER HAIL FELL FOR 15 MINUTES
DPORTERLocal storm report, Aug 23, 6:56 PM CDT, 24 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
656 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0650 PM 2 NW CRYSTAL ND 1.75 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 PEMBINA REPORTED BY CO-OP
OBSERVER.
DPORTERLocal storm report, Aug 23, 7:08 PM CDT, 12 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS, ND
708 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0702 PM HOOPLE ND .75 INCH HAIL
08/23/02 WALSH REPORTED BY FIRE
DEPARTMENT.
DPORTERThe 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), 00:00Z
0.3 hours before the tornado, 249 km from the path. August 24, 2002.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 815 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -75 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1011 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1999 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 20 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 16 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.1 K/km
Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 12:00Z
11.7 hours after it, 249 km from the path. August 24, 2002.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 865 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -129 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1332 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -9 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 13 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.4 K/km
The radar
The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:22 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 2002 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 23, 2002
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.