EF1 tornado, Tuttle, North Dakota, May 24, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 24, 2010

Touchdown

9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)

Lifted

9:10 PM CDT (02:10 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Kidder County

Touchdown point

47.063, -99.926

Lift-off point

47.096, -99.933

Record number

1005242000-01

A surface warm front continued to lift slowly north across southern North Dakota during the day on Monday, May 24th, in advance of a potent upper level trough racing northeast across the Rocky Mountains and towards the Northern Plains. Tornado Watch number 215 was issued by mid afternoon in anticipation of rapid thunderstorm development and intensification once mass divergence associated with the upper wave spread across the region. An elevated threat for tornadoes existed along the warm front due to favorable low level vertical shear parameters. ||Numerous severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings were issued from late in the afternoon till later in the evening. Several reports of large hail, multiple reports of severe thunderstorm winds, and several reports of funnel clouds and tornadoes were received during this event. The number of confirmed tornadoes was two.

The public reported damage to farms in the area. Most of the damage was caused by thunderstorm winds, however, the damage in one area was descriptive of a tornado. The farmer with the worst damage described objects scattered about in east, north, northwest, and west directions. His description of the debris field indicated that this was likely a tornado. Vehicles were damaged, along with garages, stalls, and barns. Trees were uprooted. One garage was blown to the west, while animal feeders were blown to the east. Based on the description of damage it was determined that this was an EF1 tornado. From that the estimated wind speed was around 100 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:05 UTC and running to 03:00 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 01:00 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.

Bismarck (BIS), 71 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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

21 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.