Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2008

EF0 tornado, Hope, North Dakota, August 14, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Steele County on August 14, 2008, touching down at 6:45 PM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
August 14, 2008
Touchdown
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Crop damage
$5,000
County
Steele County
Touchdown point
47.334, -97.730
Lift-off point
47.334, -97.730
Record number
0808141745-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level low pressure system dived out of Canada and into the western Dakotas on Thursday (14th). Severe thunderstorms developed across eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota Thursday afternoon and evening near an inverted trough, which extended north into the area from a surface low pressure system in Nebraska. The slow moving storms produced heavy rainfall amounts in some areas as well as some hail.

Multiple funnels were reported with one touching down briefly.

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

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:31 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:31 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningFGF
00:00 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningFGF
00:39 UTC01:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:43 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.

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 234 km from the path. August 14, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2008-08-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 245 joules per kilogram, CIN -149, lifted condensation level 1428 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, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2008-08-14The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
245 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-149 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1428 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.2 hours after it, 234 km from the path. August 15, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2008-08-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 7 joules per kilogram, CIN -95, lifted condensation level 1125 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, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2008-08-15The 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 -16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 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
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-95 J/kg
Surface CAPE
542 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1125 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-16 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
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:44 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
23:28 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Se HopeSteele, NDTWO OR MORE FUNNELS FORMED BETWEEN 628 AND 650 PM CDT. THE FUNNELS MOVED SLOWLY TO THE NORTH NORTHWEST AND PASSED NEAR HOPE. THE FUNNELS WERE FORMED IN FAIRLY HIGH BASED THUNDERSTROMS AND WERE VISIBLE FROM A DISTANCE..
23:45 UTCTORNADO1 N HopeSteele, NDMULTIPLE FUNNELS REPORTED WITH ONE TOUCHING DOWN BRIEFLY.
23:53 UTCHAIL 16 Sw OriskaBarnes, ND
00:05 UTCHAIL 0.75HopeSteele, ND
00:25 UTCHAIL 0.881 N HopeSteele, ND
01:00 UTCHAIL 0.883 W PillsburyBarnes, ND
01:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nne HannafordGriggs, NDSEVERAL LARGE 3-5 INCH BRANCHES BROKEN DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 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 14, 2008

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 142:30 PM EDTEF1Miami-Dade, FL0.415$150,000
August 143:35 PM CDTEF0Brown, SD0.110
August 144:55 PM CDTEF0Hyde, SD0.110

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.