EF0 tornado, Brantford to Mose, North Dakota, July 21, 2014

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 21, 2014

Touchdown

7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)

Lifted

7:46 PM CDT (00:46 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

9.1 miles (14.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Eddy and Griggs counties

Touchdown point

47.620, -98.590

Lift-off point

47.670, -98.410

Record number

1407211835-01

During the late afternoon of July 21st, a stationary boundary set up across northeast North Dakota. Temperatures north of the boundary were generally in the low to mid 80s, while to the south they were in the mid 80s to low 90s. Surface dew point readings were very high, with most locations in the low to mid 70s. A few thunderstorms fired north of the front around the Langdon, ND, area, dropping some large hail. However, the more significant action came from a thunderstorm complex that formed across west central North Dakota and moved east during the evening. This complex evolved into a bow echo with good rotational structure on the northern book end vortice. Strong straight line winds, large hail, and a few tornadoes were reported as this complex moved across eastern North Dakota into the northwest quarter of Minnesota.

A funnel formed northwest of McHenry (which is actually located in Foster County), north of the Eddy/Foster county line, and touched down near highway 20. The tornado then tracked intermittently to the east-northeast for about eight miles (about four miles of this occurred in Eddy County), to around three miles west-northwest of Red Willow Lake (in Griggs County). Numerous large tree tree branches were broken down or tree trunks snapped along the damage path. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph.

This tornado began in Eddy County at 1835 CST, with its first four miles of track in that county. The tornado crossed into Griggs County at 1841 CST and tracked intermittently to the east-northeast for about another four miles (the total track was about eight miles), where it ended about three miles west-northwest of Red Willow Lake. Numerous large tree branches were broken down or tree trunks snapped along the path. Peak winds were estimated at 80 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:10 UTC and running to 02:25 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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.

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:35 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 2014 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.