Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2011

EF0 tornado, Raub, North Dakota, June 20, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across McLean County on June 20, 2011, touching down at 2:22 PM CDT and reaching 10 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
June 20, 2011
Touchdown
2:22 PM CDT (19:22 UTC)
Lifted
2:30 PM CDT (19:30 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
McLean County
Touchdown point
47.600, -102.100
Lift-off point
47.600, -102.105
Record number
1106201322-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A trough of low pressure extending north through the central Dakotas combined with a weak area of low pressure aloft to create an environment favorable for funnel cloud activity. A highly veering low and mid level wind profile over south central North Dakota resulted in several funnel cloud reports and two confirmed weak EF0 tornado touchdowns in the open country.

This tornado touchdown occurred in the open country. No damage was reported. It was slow moving.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC09:01 UTCFlood WatchBIS
12:00 UTC09:01 UTCFlood WatchBIS
19:31 UTC20:00 UTCTornado WarningBIS

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 16:04 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

7.4 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. June 20, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2011-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -68, lifted condensation level 1023 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2011-06-20The 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 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-68 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1023 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.6 hours after it, 141 km from the path. June 21, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2011-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 255 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 540 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2011-06-21The 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 5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
255 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
544 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
540 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Garrison (N60), 50 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:52 UTC656190° 9 kt1008.5
18:52 UTC666190° 11 kt1008.5
19:52 UTC6560120° 9 kt1009.1
20:52 UTC6562110° 8 kt1009.1

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

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:22 UTCTORNADO13 Wsw White ShieldMclean, NDPUBLIC REPORT STILL ON GROUND AT 230 PM CDT. COULD NO LONGER SEE THE TORNADO VIEW WAS OBSTRUCTED BY RAIN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 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 20, 2011

37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 204:59 AM CDTEF1Mahaska, IA0.375$150,000
June 206:14 AM CDTEF0Kankakee, IL2.4100$100,000
June 2012:55 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS1.125
June 201:00 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS2.725
June 201:12 PM CDTEF0Graham, KS4.825
June 201:54 PM CDTEF3Graham, KS11.9600$6.0 million
June 201:57 PM CDTEF1Graham, KS0.625$500,000
June 202:04 PM CDTEF1Graham, KS0.925$500,000
June 202:15 PM CDTEF0Norton, KS1.820
June 202:25 PM CDTEF3Norton, KS3.9100$350,000
June 202:26 PM CDTEF1Norton, KS0.325$10,000
June 202:30 PM CDTEF2Norton, KS4.075$300,000
June 202:35 PM CDTEF0Norton, KS1.620
June 202:41 PM CDTEF3Norton, KS8.4100$10 million
June 202:42 PM CDTEF0Morton, ND0.330
June 203:00 PM CDTEF1Harlan, NE12.5100$250,000
June 203:35 PM CDTEF0Phelps, NE4.8300$750,000
June 203:51 PM CDTEF2Buffalo, NE4.04401$750,000
June 204:09 PM CDTEF3Buffalo, NE10.01,320$6.0 million
June 204:35 PM CDTEF0Buffalo, NE3.650
June 204:46 PM CDTEF2Sherman, NE2.5200$100,000
June 205:05 PM CDTEF0Howard, NE0.150$80,000
June 205:25 PM CDTEF2Hamilton, NE9.4440$2.5 million
June 205:27 PM CDTEF0Sheridan, KS0.510
June 205:35 PM CDTEF1Valley, NE1.0100$50,000
June 205:40 PM CDTEF2York, NE15.3440$3.5 million
June 206:02 PM CDTEF3Polk, NE9.5880$4.0 million
June 206:25 PM CDTEF0Decatur, KS0.510
June 206:44 PM CDTEF0Norton, KS0.510
June 206:45 PM CDTEF0Decatur, KS0.510
June 207:27 PM CDTEF1Pierce, NE12.0400
June 208:00 PM CDTEF1Dodge, NE6.5700$280,000
June 208:09 PM CDTEF1Washington, NE7.3850
June 208:45 PM CDTEF1Monona, IA7.1300
June 208:46 PM CDTEF0Stephens, TX0.030
June 209:40 PM CDTEF0Plymouth, IA0.9100$20,000
June 2011:22 PM CDTEF1Kossuth, IA1.275$200,000

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.