EF0 tornado, Alsen to Weaver, North Dakota, July 26, 2010

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 26, 2010

Touchdown

9:17 PM CDT (02:17 UTC)

Lifted

9:27 PM CDT (02:27 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

4.9 miles (7.9 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cavalier County

Touchdown point

48.630, -98.766

Lift-off point

48.589, -98.678

Record number

1007262017-01

Warm mid level temperatures held back convection until the mid evening of the 26th, when a line of thunderstorms flared up north of Devils Lake. As these thunderstorms moved east, they began to bow and produce strong straight line winds at the surface. Just before midnight, thunderstorms to the south of the initial line strengthened and also produced sporadic reports of strong winds from south of Cooperstown down through the Fargo/Moorhead area and into portions of west central Minnesota. There was a bit of a lull in the early morning from severe storms, but another strong line fired up again by mid afternoon. However, by this time, most of the strongest storms were over Grant County and areas further south and east. The Highway 10 corridor from Barnesville to Perham to Sebeka was hit by several rounds of thunderstorms and heavy rain, which resulted in flash flooding.

Tornado tracked intermittently for about 5 miles over mainly open rangeland. Tornado was enshrouded in damaging downburst winds and very heavy rains. Peak winds were estimated to 85 mph.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:55 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:10 UTC and running to 03:12 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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 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.

Devils_lake (DVL), 57 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 159 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:18 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.