Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2014

EF0 tornado, Persis, North Dakota, June 1, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cass County on June 1, 2014, touching down at 6:21 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 1, 2014
Touchdown
6:21 PM CDT (23:21 UTC)
Lifted
6:22 PM CDT (23:22 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cass County
Touchdown point
46.850, -97.290
Lift-off point
46.850, -97.290
Record number
1406011721-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Showers and thunderstorms over central North Dakota moved into areas west of the Red River Valley during the evening of the 1st. The activity was associated with favorable conditions for low level rotation, and as a result, several reports of funnel clouds were received along with one tornado.

A brief touchdown occurred in an open field. The location and time were approximated by video, photographic, and radar evidence.

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

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 1, 3:24 PM CDT, 2 hours 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 1, 3:24 PM CDT, 2 hours 57 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 1, 6:54 AM CDT, 11 hours 27 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Jun 1, 2:33 PM CDT, 3 hours 48 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jun 1, 2:43 PM CDT, 3 hours 38 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jun 1, 2:52 PM CDT, 3 hours 29 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jun 1, 3:06 PM CDT, 3 hours 15 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jun 1, 3:13 PM CDT, 3 hours 8 minutes before
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Local storm report, Jun 1, 3:22 PM CDT, 2 hours 59 minutes before
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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.

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 233 km from the path. June 1, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2014-06-01Temperature 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 -110012, lifted condensation level 1256 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, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2014-06-01The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
-110012 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1256 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 233 km from the path. June 2, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2014-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 221 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 1175 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, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2014-06-02The 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 -22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
221 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
769 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1175 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fargo (FAR), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:22 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.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2014

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 112:42 PM CDTEF0Winnebago, IA1.125
June 15:43 PM CDTEF0Republic, KS0.150
June 16:12 PM CDTEF0Republic, KS0.025
June 17:03 PM CDTEF0Stutsman, ND0.020

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.