Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2006

F0 tornado, Sheldon to Leonard, North Dakota, June 5, 2006

From Sheldon to Leonard, this F0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Cass and Ransom counties on June 5, 2006, touching down at 7:35 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 5, 2006
Touchdown
7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Cass and Ransom counties
Touchdown point
46.630, -97.280
Lift-off point
46.630, -97.330
Record number
597

What the Weather Service recorded

A deputy reported a tornado along the Cass and Ransom county line.

A deputy reported a tornado along the Cass and Ransom county line.

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

The warnings

31 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:04 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:06 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchFGF
19:13 UTC19:40 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
23:55 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFGF
00:04 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
00:58 UTC01:47 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 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), 00:00Z

0.6 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. June 6, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2006-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1269 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1709 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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 2006-06-06The 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 61 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
1269 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1777 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1709 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
61 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
4.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

11.4 hours after it, 210 km from the path. June 6, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2006-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -79274, lifted condensation level 1804 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2006-06-06The 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 51 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79274 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1804 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:35 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
00:00 UTCHAIL 17 Nne OriskaBarnes, ND
00:15 UTCHAIL 15 Nne BuffaloCass, ND
00:34 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 W CasseltonCass, NDPERSISTENT WALL CLOUD AND FUNNEL VIEWED FROM NEAR CASSELTON.
00:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 N CayugaSargent, NDPERSISTENT WALL CLOUS WITH BRIEF FUNEL VIEWED FROM NEAR CAYUGA.
00:35 UTCTORNADO 02 Wsw LeonardCass, NDA DEPUTY REPORTED A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WEST SOUTHWEST OF LEONARD ALONG THE RANSOM AND CASS COUNTY LINE.
00:35 UTCTORNADO 08 Ene SheldonRansom, NDA DEPUTY REPORTED A BRIEF TOUCHDOWN WEST SOUTHWEST OF LEONARD ALONG THE CASS AND RANSOM COUNTY LINE.
00:40 UTCHAIL 1.254 W HamlinSargent, ND
00:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 606 E CasseltonCass, ND
01:05 UTCHAIL 0.882 E MapletonCass, ND
01:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Se ColfaxRichland, NDSEVERAL LARGE TREE BRANCHES BROKEN DOWN IN SHELTER BELTS NEAR INTERSTATE 29.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 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 5, 2006

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 54:40 PM CDTF1Otter Tail, MN1.050
June 54:45 PM CDTF0Sanborn, SD2.0200
June 55:30 PM CDTF1Grant, MN1.550
June 58:41 PM CDTF0Richland, ND2.025

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.