Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2011

EF1 tornado, Kelso, North Dakota, July 4, 2011

Name: EF1 tornado, Kelso, North Dakota, July 4, 2011
Start: 2011-07-05T02:15:00.000Z
End: 2011-07-05T02:17:00.000Z
Location: Kelso, North Dakota

This EF1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Traill County on July 4, 2011, touching down at 9:15 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 of property damage.

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: EF1
Date: July 4, 2011
Touchdown: 9:15 PM CDT (02:15 UTC)
Lifted: 9:17 PM CDT (02:17 UTC)
On the ground: 2 minutes
Path length: 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width: 30 yards (27 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
County: Traill County
Touchdown point: 47.310, -97.110
Lift-off point: 47.300, -97.110
Record number: 1107042015-01

What the Weather Service recorded

By late in the afternoon of the 4th, temperatures had risen into the 80s to low 90s with dew points in the low 70s. This created an extremely unstable airmass over eastern North Dakota and the northwest quarter of Minnesota. A cold front over central North Dakota marched to the east, helping to initiate severe thunderstorms across the area.

This tornado touched down briefly in a farmyard and tracked southward for about one-half mile before lifting. The tornado tore off part of the house eaves and numerous shingles. It also spread sections of a ground based solar collector around the farmyard. Only small branches were broken down in the poplar trees to the northeast of the farmyard. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:18 UTC and running to 05:28 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
20:10 UTC	00:18 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	FGF
00:18 UTC	05:28 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	FGF
01:17 UTC	02:05 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF
02:12 UTC	03:15 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FGF
02:21 UTC	03:00 UTC	Tornado Warning	FGF

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 00:56 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.

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 Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 4, 8:15 PM CDT, 1 hour earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 8:15 PM CDT, 1 hour before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND
815 PM CDT MON JUL 4 2011

.SHORT TERM...FORECAST CHALLENGE FOR UPDATE WILL BE POTENTIAL FOR
SOUTHWESTWARD STORM DEVELOPMENT ALONG CONVECTION.

ABBREVIATED DISCUSSION WITH ONGOING SEVERE STORMS. COLD FRONT
ROUGHLY BISECTING FA FROM NE-SW WITH SEVERE SO FAR THIS EVENING
LIMITED TO NORTHERN HALF OF FRONTAL BOUNDARY ACROSS FA IN ZONE OF
FAVORABLE UPPER LEVEL DIVERGENCE WITH JET MAXIMA. MORE STORMS
BEGINNING TO GO ACROSS SOUTHERN VALLEY. CONVECTION SHOULD CONTINUE
TO PROPAGATE SE AHEAD OF APPROACHING BOUNDARY. HAVE ADJUSTED
POPS/CLOUD TRENDS ACCORDINGLY. REMAINDER OF FORECAST UNCHANGED.

&&

.AVIATION...

STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO PROPAGATE SE MAINLY ACROSS SOUTHERN HALF OF
FA REMAINDER OF THE EVENING. STRONGER STORMS MAY PRODUCE MVFR VSBY
IN RAIN ALONG WITH SEVERE LEVEL HAIL AND WIND.

&&

.HYDROLOGY...

MINOR TO MODERATE FLOODING CONTINUES ALONG PORTIONS OF THE RED
RIVER AND ON THE SHEYENNE RIVER IN NORTH DAKOTA DUE TO HEAVY
RAINFALL IN PAST WEEKS. SEVERAL LOCATIONS FINALLY FELL BELOW THEIR
RESPECTIVE FLOOD STAGES...INCLUDING THE SHEYENNE RIVER AT BOTH
KINDRED AND HARWOOD...AND THE BUFFALO RIVER AT DILWORTH. WEST
FARGO IS THE ONLY LOCATION ALONG THE SHEYENNE RIVER THAT IS STILL
ABOVE FLOOD STAGE...AND THE ONLY OTHER FLOODING IN THE REGION IS
ON THE MAINSTEM RED RIVER.

WIDELY SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE FORECAST THIS
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THESE SHOULD HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THE
CURRENT AND FORECAST TRENDS. GENERALLY ONE THIRD INCH OF RAIN IS
FORECAST THE NEXT 24 HOURS. WHILE ISOLATED HIGHER AMOUNTS ARE LIKELY
WITH THE STRONGEST STORMS THE AREAL COVERAGE SHOULD NOT BE ENOUGH TO
RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO THE CURRENT TRENDS OR FORECASTS.

&&

.FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
ND...NONE.
MN...NONE.
&&

VOELKER

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 4, 5:22 AM CDT, 15 hours 53 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND FORKS ND
522 AM CDT MON JUL 4 2011

MNZ001>009-013>017-022>024-027>032-040-NDZ006>008-014>016-024-
026>030-038-039-049-052>054-051030-
WEST POLK-NORMAN-CLAY-KITTSON-ROSEAU-LAKE OF THE WOODS-
WEST MARSHALL-EAST MARSHALL-NORTH BELTRAMI-PENNINGTON-RED LAKE-
EAST POLK-NORTH CLEARWATER-SOUTH BELTRAMI-MAHNOMEN-
SOUTH CLEARWATER-HUBBARD-WEST BECKER-EAST BECKER-WILKIN-
WEST OTTER TAIL-EAST OTTER TAIL-WADENA-GRANT-TOWNER-CAVALIER-
PEMBINA-BENSON-RAMSEY-EASTERN WALSH-EDDY-NELSON-GRAND FORKS-
GRIGGS-STEELE-TRAILL-BARNES-CASS-RANSOM-SARGENT-RICHLAND-
WESTERN WALSH-
522 AM CDT MON JUL 4 2011

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF EASTERN NORTH
DAKOTA...WEST CENTRAL AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS
AFTERNOON AND INTO TONIGHT. SOUTHERLY WINDS THROUGHOUT THE DAY
TODAY WILL CONTINUE TO BRING MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIR INTO THE AREA.
A COLD FRONT MOVING INTO NORTHEASTERN NORTH DAKOTA LATE THIS
AFTERNOON WILL HELP SET OFF THUNDERSTORMS IN THAT AREA...WITH THE
STORMS MOVING SOUTH AND EASTWARD AS THE EVENING PROGRESSES. LARGE
HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE THE MAIN
THREATS. THE BEST CHANCES FOR SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE IN THE 3 PM
TO MIDNIGHT TIME FRAME. THE STORMS WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE INTO
SOUTHEASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA DURING THE
OVERNIGHT HOURS...WITH STRONG WINDS THE PRIMARY THREAT.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO TONIGHT.

JR

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 4, 7:19 PM CDT, 1 hour 56 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
719 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0617 PM     HAIL             1 W HALMA               48.66N 96.62W
07/04/2011  E1.00 INCH       KITTSON            MN   PUBLIC

&&

GROCHOCINSKI

Local storm report, Jul 4, 7:25 PM CDT, 1 hour 50 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
725 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0717 PM     HAIL             5 E EUCLID              47.97N 96.53W
07/04/2011  E1.75 INCH       POLK               MN   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

WBARRETT

Local storm report, Jul 4, 7:37 PM CDT, 1 hour 38 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
737 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0719 PM     HAIL             2 SSE EUCLID            47.95N 96.62W
07/04/2011  E1.00 INCH       POLK               MN   PUBLIC

&&

GROCHOCINSKI

Local storm report, Jul 4, 7:39 PM CDT, 1 hour 36 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
739 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0725 PM     HAIL             1 E EUCLID              47.97N 96.62W
07/04/2011  E1.75 INCH       POLK               MN   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

WBARRETT

Local storm report, Jul 4, 8:20 PM CDT, 55 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
820 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0819 PM     HAIL             NIELSVILLE              47.53N 96.82W
07/04/2011  E1.00 INCH       POLK               MN   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

GROCHOCINSKI

Local storm report, Jul 4, 9:03 PM CDT, 12 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
903 PM CDT MON JUL 04 2011

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

0832 PM     HAIL             10 ENE BUXTON           47.66N 96.90W
07/04/2011  E0.75 INCH       TRAILL             ND   PUBLIC

&&

GROCHOCINSKI

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

2.3 hours before the tornado, 278 km from the path. July 5, 2011.

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: 2367 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -46 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 2859 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1498 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 110 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 2.4
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.7 hours after it, 278 km from the path. July 5, 2011.

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

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -90184 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2537 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fargo (FAR), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:53 UTC	88	72	220° 10 kt		1008.5
01:53 UTC	86	72	210° 14 kt		1007.8
02:27 UTC	86	73.4	180° 11 kt		1007.8	TS
02:53 UTC	85	73	200° 9 kt		1008.5	TS
03:18 UTC	73.4	69.8	350° 18 kt	28	1010.8	+TSRA BR
03:35 UTC	71.6	66.2	100° 10 kt		1010.8	-TSRA
04:03 UTC	71.6	64.4	110° 11 kt		1010.8

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

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:14 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)	Report	Where	County	Remark
01:32 UTC	HAIL 0.75	10 Ene Buxton	Traill, ND
02:26 UTC	TORNADO	2 W Grandin	Cass, ND	BRIEF TOUCHDOWN REPORTED IN OPENED FIELD WEST OF TOWN.
02:27 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	3 Sw Grandin	Cass, ND
02:35 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	1 W Halstad	Traill, ND
03:00 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	12 Nw West Fargo	Cass, ND	DISTANCE ESTIMATED AND COORDINATED WITH RADAR SIGNATURE.
03:02 UTC	TORNADO	5 Nw Mapleton	Cass, ND	PUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO 5 NW OF MAPLETON RELAYED THROUGH DISPATCH.
03:05 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	8 Nw Fargo	Cass, ND	FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED NORTHWEST OF FARGO MOVING TOWARDS THE FARGO AREA.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2011 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 July 4, 2011

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 4	4:57 PM CDT	EF0	Pembina, ND	2.0	50	$100,000
July 4	5:08 PM CDT	EF0	Kittson, MN	2.0	50
July 4	8:05 PM CDT	EF0	Polk, MN	1.0	60
July 4	8:55 PM CDT	EF0	Norman, MN	1.5	40
July 4	9:26 PM CDT	EF0	Cass, ND	4.0	40	$5,000
July 4	9:59 PM CDT	EF2	Cass, ND	3.0	600	$150,000

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.