Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2005

F1 tornado, Silva, North Dakota, June 19, 2005

Name: F1 tornado, Silva, North Dakota, June 19, 2005
Start: 2005-06-19T09:45:00.000Z
Location: Silva, North Dakota

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Pierce County on June 19, 2005, touching down at 4:45 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 of property damage.

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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
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: F1
Date: June 19, 2005
Touchdown: 4:45 AM CDT (09:45 UTC)
Path length: 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width: 75 yards (69 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $250,000
County: Pierce County
Touchdown point: 48.050, -99.920
Lift-off point: 48.070, -99.850
Record number: 158

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touched down 8 miles south of Silva near Long Lake. It moved east-northeast and crossed into Benson County, Grand Forks NWS County Warning Area. Damage to high voltage transmission lines partly due to the tornado and partly due to 110 mph estimated wind gusts listed as a seperate entry.

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 Jun 19, 4:40 AM CDT, 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 19, 4:40 AM CDT, 5 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 18, 5:17 AM CDT, 23 hours 28 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
517 AM CDT SAT JUN 18 2005

NDZ001>005-009>013-017>023-025-031>037-040>048-050-051-191016-
ADAMS-BILLINGS-BOTTINEAU-BOWMAN-BURKE-BURLEIGH-DICKEY-DIVIDE-DUNN-
EMMONS-FOSTER-GOLDEN VALLEY-GRANT-HETTINGER-KIDDER-LA MOURE-LOGAN-
MCHENRY-MCINTOSH-MCKENZIE-MCLEAN-MERCER-MORTON-MOUNTRAIL-OLIVER-
PIERCE-RENVILLE-ROLETTE-SHERIDAN-SIOUX-SLOPE-STARK-STUTSMAN-WARD-
WELLS-WILLIAMS-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WILLISTON...MINOT...JAMESTOWN...
DICKINSON...CROSBY...BOWMAN...BOTTINEAU...BISMARCK...MANDAN...
WATFORD CITY...WASHBURN...STANLEY...RUGBY...MOTT...MEDORA...LINTON...
HETTINGER...HARVEY...ELLENDALE...CARRINGTON...BEULAH...BELCOURT...
BEACH AND ASHLEY
517 AM CDT SAT JUN 18 2005

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH
DAKOTA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THERE IS A CHANCE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
AS A COLD FRONT MOVES ACROSS THE STATE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN AND SOUTH
CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA ON SUNDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED.

VINING

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 19, 2:51 AM CDT, 1 hour 54 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
251 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0240 AM     HAIL             RYDER                   47.92N 101.67W
06/19/2005  1.00 INCH        WARD               ND   TRAINED SPOTTER

            AIR FORCE REPORTS QUARTER SIZE HAIL BY MISSILE CREW AT
            RYDER.

&&

VROLLER

Local storm report, Jun 19, 3:02 AM CDT, 1 hour 43 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
302 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0248 AM     HAIL             8 S MINOT               48.12N 101.30W
06/19/2005  1.75 INCH        WARD               ND   BROADCAST MEDIA

            RELAYED BY TOM SCHROEDER

&&

VROLLER

Local storm report, Jun 19, 3:04 AM CDT, 1 hour 41 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
304 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0210 AM     TSTM WND GST     RICHARDTON              46.88N 102.32W
06/19/2005  86 MPH           STARK              ND   CO-OP OBSERVER

            BROTHER SAILER AT ASSUMPTION ABBEY REPORTED 86 MPH GUST
            ON THEIR WIND EQUIP.

&&

VROLLER

Local storm report, Jun 19, 3:05 AM CDT, 1 hour 40 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
305 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0259 AM     HAIL             14 S MINOT              48.03N 101.30W
06/19/2005  1.00 INCH        WARD               ND   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

VROLLER

Local storm report, Jun 19, 3:24 AM CDT, 1 hour 21 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
324 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0310 AM     TSTM WND GST     HAZEN                   47.30N 101.62W
06/19/2005  60 MPH           MERCER             ND   PUBLIC

&&

VROLLER

Special weather statement, Jun 19, 3:51 AM CDT, 54 minutes before

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND
351 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

NDZ017-018-031>033-040-041-043-044-190849-
ADAMS-BILLINGS-BOWMAN-DUNN-GOLDEN VALLEY-HETTINGER-MCKENZIE-SLOPE-
STARK-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...DICKINSON...BOWMAN...WATFORD CITY...MOTT...
MEDORA...HETTINGER AND BEACH
351 AM CDT SUN JUN 19 2005

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH EXPIRES FOR THE WESTERN THIRD OF THE
STATE...

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 497 HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO EXPIRE FOR
THE WESTERN THIRD OF THE STATE. DICKINSON...BOWMAN...AND HETTINGER
ARE NO LONGER IN THE WATCH.

THE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 AM CDT OR 4 AM MDT FOR MCLEAN AND
MERCER COUNTIES.

VINING

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.

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 00:00Z

9.8 hours before the tornado, 156 km from the path. June 19, 2005.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 3392 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -3 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 4063 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1315 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.5
Supercell composite: 4.3
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Devils_lake (DVL), 73 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2005 tornado in North Dakota Every tornado in North Dakota since 1950 Warnings in force in North Dakota now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 19, 2005

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 19	4:56 AM CDT	F1	Benson, ND	2.0	100
June 19	5:15 AM CDT	F1	Benson, ND	0.2	100
June 19	5:18 AM CDT	F1	Benson, ND	0.2	100
June 19	4:00 PM CDT	F0	Grand Forks, ND	0.2	50
June 19	4:10 PM CDT	F0	Grand Forks, ND	0.2	50
June 19	7:08 PM CDT	F0	Polk, MN	0.2	50

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.