Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2003

F0 tornado, Cogswell to Gwinner, North Dakota, June 23, 2003

From Cogswell to Gwinner, this F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Sargent County on June 23, 2003, touching down at 5:15 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.

  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
June 23, 2003
Touchdown
5:15 PM CDT (22:15 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sargent County
Touchdown point
46.200, -97.750
Lift-off point
46.200, -97.700
Record number
1271

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado had multiple brief touchdowns along the path, but had a dust and debris cloud. Witnesses also heard a roaring sound. Crops were damaged along the path.

The tornado tracked through open country.

A brief tornado touchdown was reported.

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 21:59 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:54 UTC14:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
21:59 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningFGF
22:39 UTC04:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningFGF

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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.

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 154 km from the path. June 23, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2003-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2802 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 685 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, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2003-06-23The 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 132 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
2802 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1093 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
685 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
173 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
10.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 154 km from the path. June 24, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2003-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1534 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 996 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, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2003-06-24The 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 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1534 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2904 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
996 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
407 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
4.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Sisseton (8D3), 82 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:56 UTC7464100° 6 kt1005.8
21:56 UTC7466 3 kt1005.4
22:56 UTC7769170° 6 kt1005.8
23:56 UTC7571100° 7 kt1006.4

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

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:13 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 2003 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 23, 2003

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 231:07 AM CDTF0Phillips, KS0.230
June 231:45 AM CDTF0Smith, KS0.220
June 231:50 AM CDTF0Smith, KS0.220
June 234:45 PM CDTF1Sargent, ND2.550
June 235:02 PM CDTF0Sargent, ND3.025
June 235:08 PM CDTF0Sargent, ND1.025
June 237:50 PM CDTF0Grant, SD0.125
June 239:00 PM CDTF0Antelope, NE0.020
June 239:43 PM CDTF4Coleridge tornado, NE13.01,2001$3.7 million
June 2310:21 PM CDTF0Frontier, NE0.110$10,000
June 2310:51 PM CDTF0Woodbury, IA0.150

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.