Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2014

EF0 tornado, Chaffee, North Dakota, June 5, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cass County on June 5, 2014, touching down at 5:02 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 5, 2014
Touchdown
5:02 PM CDT (22:02 UTC)
Lifted
5:03 PM CDT (22:03 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cass County
Touchdown point
46.749, -97.305
Lift-off point
46.749, -97.305
Record number
1406051602-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and early evening of the 5th along a weak convergent boundary extending from southeast North Dakota up into the northwest corner of Minnesota. A weak area of surface low pressure even formed over southeast North Dakota, aiding in the development of a funnel cloud.

A persistent funnel was evident tracking to the south and located just east of Chaffee. A brief touchdown occurred in an opened field.

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

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:48 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:18 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:59 UTC21:29 UTCTornado WarningFGF
21:48 UTC22:18 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:25 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.

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 222 km from the path. June 5, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2014-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 575 joules per kilogram, CIN -28, lifted condensation level 701 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 12:00Z on 2014-06-05The 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 0 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
575 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28 J/kg
Surface CAPE
191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
701 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 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

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 222 km from the path. June 6, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2014-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 26 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 2090 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 2014-06-06The 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 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
26 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
609 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2090 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.7 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 22:00 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
21:00 UTCHAIL 0.5CasseltonCass, NDVIA INTERNET
21:00 UTCHAIL 0.751 S CasseltonCass, NDWALL CLOUD AND ROTATION PASSED OVER D.O.T. SHOP NO FUNNEL OR TOUCHDOWN OBSERVED
21:00 UTCHAIL 0.754 Ne ChaffeeCass, ND
21:10 UTCHAIL 1.5CasseltonCass, NDMOSTLY 1 INCH SIZED HAIL...BUT A FEW BIGGER STONES
21:30 UTCHAIL 0.754 Ne ChaffeeCass, ND
21:50 UTCHAIL 0.55 Sw CasseltonCass, ND
21:55 UTCHAIL 14 Ne ChaffeeCass, ND
22:00 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 E ChaffeeCass, ND
22:00 UTCHAIL 0.757 S CasseltonCass, ND
22:45 UTCHAIL 11 Nw LeonardCass, ND

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

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 5, 2014

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 52:14 PM CDTEF0Minnehaha, SD0.250
June 52:51 PM CDTEF1Thurston, NE1.5100
June 53:40 PM CDTEF0Lincoln, SD0.450
June 54:25 PM CDTEF0Sargent, ND0.110
June 54:34 PM CDTEF1Limestone, AL0.7100
June 55:05 PM CDTEF0Rock, MN0.350
June 57:21 PM EDTEF0Gilmer, GA0.850$50,000
June 56:49 PM CDTEF0Murray, MN0.350
June 58:07 PM MDTEF0Bent, CO0.450

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.