Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2003
F0 tornado, Sargent County, North Dakota, June 27, 2003
This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Sargent County on June 27, 2003, touching down at 5:40 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
- June 27, 2003
- Touchdown
- 5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Sargent County
- Touchdown point
- 46.020, -98.000
- Lift-off point
- 46.050, -97.980
- Record number
- 1272
The warnings
20 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:20 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:20 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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 Jun 27, 1:50 PM CDT, 3 hours 50 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jun 27, 1:50 PM CDT, 3 hours 50 minutes before
FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND 150 PM CDT FRI JUN 27 2003 FORECAST CONCERNS WILL BE CONVECTIVE CHANCES AND TEMPS .OVERVIEW... SFC BOUNDARY AND UPPER LEVEL ENERGY CONTINUE TO PUSH SOUTHEAST INTO WESTERN FORECAST AREA. THUNDERSTORMS STARTING TO DEVELOP ACROSS MOST OF CENTRAL INTO SOUTHEASTERN ND. MODELS IN GENERALLY GOOD AGREEMENT AND LIKE ETA MOISTURE/TEMPS PROFILES SO WILL USE. .TONIGHT... WITH UPPER LEVEL VORTICITY MAXIMUM AND JET ENERGY OVERSPREADING REGION TONIGHT...THUNDER WILL BE LIKELY EVERYWHERE TONIGHT WITH FAVORABLE PARAMETERS FOR SEVERE STORMS AS WELL. SEVERE STORMS POSSIBLE UNTIL AROUND 06Z...AND WILL WORD AS SUCH IN GRIDS. TEMPS TO FALL INTO MID 50S EAST AND NEAR 50 FAR NORTHWEST. .SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY... EXPECT CONTINUE CYCLONIC FLOW AND LI/S BY AFTERNOON AROUND -3C...SO WILL MENTION THUNDER CHANCES ALL DAY IN EAST AND EVERYWHERE IN AFTERNOON WITH TEMPS RISING INTO LOW/MID 70S WITH WARMER TEMPS ALOFT. WEATHER PATTERN SHOULD DRY OUT SAT NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY...WITH WARMING TREND ABOVE NORMAL BY MONDAY WITH BUILDING RIDGE. .EXTENDED... REASONABLE AGREEMENT BETWEEN EXTENDED MODELS AND CONTINUITY BETWEEN GFS UNTIL LATE. MID LEVEL RIDGE FLATTENS EARLY TRANSITIONING FA IN SW/ZONAL FLOW THROUGH REMAINDER OF PERIOD. SFC BOUNDARY SETTING UP FROM S MB TO WESTERN HIGH PLAINS TUESDAY. MID LEVEL SUPPORT LOOKS WEAK WITH FAVORED AREA ACROSS NORTH. BETTER CHANCES WEDNESDAY AS SFC BOUNDARY PUSHES THROUGH WITH MORE SIGNIFICANT WAVE...AGAIN MAIN ENERGY LOOKS TO BE ACROSS SOUTHERN CANADA. THERMAL RIDGE PEAKS PRIOR TO FROPA WITH FALLING THICKNESS/850MB TEMPS THEREAFTER. .FGF...NONE KELLENBENZ/VOELKER
Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 27, 6:05 AM CDT, 11 hours 35 minutes before
MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024- 026>030-038-039-049-052>054-271300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS 605 AM CDT FRI JUN 27 2003 ...A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER EXISTS ACROSS EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA TODAY AND TONIGHT... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER EXISTS FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA... NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE MAIN SEVERE WEATHER THREATS ARE LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. IN ADDITION...THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR ISOLATED TORNADOS. THE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP IN CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA THIS AFTERNOON...TRACK INTO EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA BY LATE AFTERNOON...AND THEN MOVE INTO NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA THIS EVENING. A STRONG UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE IN CONJUNCTION WITH AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE AND ITS ASSOCIATED FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL MOVE THROUGH THE AREA TODAY AND TONIGHT...PROVIDING THE FOCUS FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT...SOME OF WHICH COULD BE SEVERE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THERE IS A CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS IN ALL BUT SOUTHEASTERN NORTH DAKOTA ON SATURDAY...AND FOR THE WHOLE AREA FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NECESSARY THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION, CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/FGF/INDEX.HTML (ALL LOWER CASE) NG
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
10.7 hours before the tornado, 130 km from the path. June 27, 2003.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -242 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2046 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 134 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 172 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
1.3 hours after it, 130 km from the path. June 28, 2003.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 330 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -61 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1809 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1668 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 22 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 105 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
The surface observations
Aberdeen (ABR), 73 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:53 UTC | 74 | 56 | 230° 7 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 21:53 UTC | 75 | 55 | 280° 5 kt | 1008.5 | ||
| 22:53 UTC | 75 | 60 | 270° 11 kt | 1008.1 | ||
| 23:53 UTC | 73 | 54 | 310° 7 kt | 1008.8 | ||
| 00:18 UTC | 68 | 57.2 | 20° 12 kt | 1008.8 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:42 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 27, 2003
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 27 | 4:48 PM CDT | F0 | Dickey, ND | 5.0 | 30 | |||
| June 27 | 5:30 PM CDT | F0 | Dickey, ND | 0.0 | 40 | |||
| June 27 | 6:35 PM CDT | F0 | Towner, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 6:54 PM CDT | F0 | Towner, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 7:02 PM CDT | F0 | Towner, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 8:00 PM CDT | F0 | Towner, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 8:10 PM CDT | F0 | Benson, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 8:12 PM CDT | F0 | Ramsey, ND | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 9:18 PM CDT | F0 | Eddy, ND | 0.5 | 25 | |||
| June 27 | 9:23 PM CDT | F0 | Foster, ND | 0.0 | 30 |
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.