Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2011

EF0 tornado, Richardton, North Dakota, June 7, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Stark County on June 7, 2011, touching down at 4:24 PM MDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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.

  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 7, 2011
Touchdown
4:24 PM MDT (22:24 UTC)
Lifted
4:27 PM MDT (22:27 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Stark County
Touchdown point
46.880, -102.338
Lift-off point
46.879, -102.332
Record number
1106071624-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe Thunderstorm Watch number 437 was issued during the mid afternoon of June 7th as scattered thunderstorms started to intensify under a pocket of cold air aloft. Enhanced forcing for large scale ascent was also increasing over the watch area near the exit region of an upper level jet. ||Three severe thunderstorm warnings and two tornado warnings were issued. Several reports of large hail, one report of a severe thunderstorm wind gust, and one confirmed tornado occurred during this event.

The National Weather Service spoke to an eye witness who described this tornado. This tornado touched down briefly on the north side of Interstate 94 southwest of Richardton, lifting immediately after tearing part of a roof off of an outbuilding on a farm. This was the only damage attributed to this tornado, with no injuries or fatalities. Based on the damage description, this tornado was indicative of a strong EF0 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with peak winds of 85 miles per hour.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:29 UTC22:56 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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

10.4 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. June 7, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 12:00Z on 2011-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -61050, lifted condensation level 882 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-06-07The 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 538 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61050 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
882 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
538 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
549 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.6 hours after it, 125 km from the path. June 8, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Bismarck Municip, ND at 00:00Z on 2011-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 106 joules per kilogram, CIN -70, lifted condensation level 1184 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 2011-06-08The 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 -50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 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
106 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1070 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1184 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dickinson (DIK), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:56 UTC66570° 3 kt998.6
21:23 UTC69.855.4280° 17 kt24999VCTS
21:49 UTC69.853.6270° 29 kt371000
21:56 UTC6849270° 28 kt371000
22:56 UTC6350250° 17 kt231000.7-RA
23:56 UTC5952270° 15 kt1001.4-RA

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

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:22 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
22:24 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD1 S RichardtonStark, NDJUST SOUTH OF MILE MARKER 76 ON INTERSTATE 94. COULD NOT CONFIRM TOUCHDOWN...BUT THERE WAS DAMAGE TO A FARMSTEAD. DEPUTY EN ROUTE.
22:24 UTCTORNADO1 Sw RichardtonStark, NDDEPUTY CONFIRMED THAT TORNADO WAS ON GROUND AROUND 1729 CDT. ANOTHER CALLER SAW TORNADO RIP ROOF OFF BARN WHILE MOVING EAST. SEVERAL OTHER PUBLIC REPORTS OF A TORNADO WERE RECEIVED. NO REPORTS OF INJURIES.
22:40 UTCHAIL 16 W HebronStark, ND
22:46 UTCTSTM WND GST 60HebronMorton, NDSTRONG WINDS ESTIMATED 60 MPH OR GREATER SPUN A TRUCK AROUND.
22:46 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 60HebronMorton, NDSTRONG WINDS ESTIMATED 60 MPH OR GREATER SPUN A TRUCK AROUND.
23:06 UTCHAIL 1.756 Nne Glen UllinMorton, ND

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

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.