Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2012

EF0 tornado, Warsaw, North Dakota, June 3, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Walsh County on June 3, 2012, touching down at 7:02 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 3, 2012
Touchdown
7:02 PM CDT (00:02 UTC)
Lifted
7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
On the ground
7 minutes
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Walsh County
Touchdown point
48.310, -97.190
Lift-off point
48.300, -97.141
Record number
1206031802-01

What the Weather Service recorded

By early in the evening of June 3rd, a surface boundary had crept into the Red River Valley. Dew point values, which had held in the 50s for much of the day, managed to rise into the low to mid 60s right along the boundary. Showers and thunderstorms fired up early in the evening along the boundary, producing tornado and funnel reports.

A persistent funnel was viewed from exit 168 on Interstate 29. Intermittent tornado touchdowns occurred along a three mile path, which resulted in tree limbs being snapped in several shelterbelts along the route. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:44 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:11 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:12 UTC23:39 UTCTornado WarningFGF
23:44 UTC00:11 UTCTornado WarningFGF

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 19:59 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.

International Fa, MN (KINL), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 287 km from the path. June 4, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, International Fa, MN at 00:00Z on 2012-06-04Temperature 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 -88442, lifted condensation level 1641 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, International Fa, MN at 00:00Z on 2012-06-04The 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 20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88442 J/kg
Surface CAPE
321 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1641 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

International Fa, MN (KINL), 12:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 287 km from the path. June 4, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, International Fa, MN at 12:00Z on 2012-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 334 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 849 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, International Fa, MN at 12:00Z on 2012-06-04The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
334 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
849 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:00 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
23:07 UTCTORNADO 02 Ssw DraytonWalsh, NDEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ALONG I29 NEAR THE SOUTH DRAYTON EXIT. THE TORNADO THEN TRACKED INTERMITTENTLY TO THE SOUTHEAST FOR ABOUT 3 MILES BEFORE CROSSING THE RED RIVER AROUND 3.5 SSE OF DR
23:07 UTCTORNADO1 S DraytonPembina, NDEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORT OF A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ALONG I29 NEAR DRAYTON.
23:07 UTCTORNADODraytonPembina, NDEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORT OF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ALONG I29 NEAR DRAYTON.
23:16 UTCTORNADO13 Wnw StephenMarshall, MNTHIS TORNADO CONTINUED FROM NORTHEASTERN WALSH COUNTY INTO MARSHALL COUNTY. IT TRACKED INTERMITTENTLY FOR ABOUT 3 MORE MILES TO ABOUT 10 WNW OF STEPHEN BY 625 PM CDT. SEVERAL TREE LIMBS WERE SNAPPED AND BRANCHES WERE SCA
23:55 UTCHAIL 0.251 E OakwoodWalsh, ND
00:02 UTCTORNADO 03 Ene WarsawWalsh, NDA PERSISTENT FUNNEL WAS VIEWED FROM EXIT 168 ON INTERSTATE 29. INTERMITTENT TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS OCCURRED ALONG ABOUT A 3 MILE PATH TO NEAR 5 E OF WARSAW BY 709 PM CDT. SEVERAL TREE LIMBS WERE SNAPPED AND BRANCHES SCATTERE
00:05 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD11 Ese MintoWalsh, NDPERSISTENT WALL CLOUD WITH FUNNEL AS VIEWED FROM EXIT 168 ON INTERSTATE 29. PERSISTENT ROTATION LIKELY PASSED OVER THE RED RIVER INTO MARSHALL COUNTY.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 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 3, 2012

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 36:07 PM CDTEF0Walsh, ND to MN6.140
June 37:16 PM CDTEF0Barnes, ND0.220
June 37:20 PM CDTEF1Marshall, MN3.540

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.