EF0 tornado, Charlson, North Dakota, July 6, 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 6, 2014

Touchdown

8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)

Lifted

8:31 PM CDT (01:31 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.8 miles (6.1 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

McKenzie County

Touchdown point

48.028, -102.742

Lift-off point

47.989, -102.685

Record number

1407061925-01

Severe Thunderstorm Watch number 395 was in effect during this event. ||A small but intense cluster of thunderstorms formed over far northeast Montana and tracked into far northwestern North Dakota early in the evening. An isolated supercell thunderstorm originating with this cluster persisted through much of the evening as it tracked southeast into south central North Dakota, bringing a destructive path of severe weather to many communities. Steep mid level lapse rates and favorable vertical wind shear promoted this thunderstorm's longevity. ||A brief EF0 tornado occurred in far northeast McKenzie County during the most intense phase of this storm. Hail to the size of golf balls and winds as high as 85 miles per hour also occurred during this severe weather episode.

This was a public report, through social media, of a tornado west of New Town, in McKenzie County. The person was uncertain of the exact location from a nearby town and so the location was estimated based on radar data. Through social media there was visual evidence of this tornado with debris visible on the ground, in open country. There were no reports of damage in real time nor in follow up contact with county officials. The tornado was therefore rated EF0. There was wind damage, likely associated with the rear flank downdraft of the parent severe thunderstorm, to the southwest of this tornado track in McKenzie County. See the entry for wind damage in McKenzie County.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS BIS issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:56 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:36 UTC and running to 03:08 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 144 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:24 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

15 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.