EF2 tornado, Mylo to Agate, North Dakota, August 3, 2016

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 3, 2016

Touchdown

5:28 PM CDT (22:28 UTC)

Lifted

6:25 PM CDT (23:25 UTC)

On the ground

57 minutes

Path length

20.0 miles (32.2 km)

Path width

1,200 yards (1097 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$600,000

Crop damage

$350,000

Counties

Rolette and Towner counties

Touchdown point

48.560, -99.610

Lift-off point

48.690, -99.210

Record number

1608031628-01

A deep low pressure system developed over eastern Montana and lifted northeast. As it did, a cold front pushed into western North Dakota. Ahead of the front, impressive instability developed over the central part of the state as moisture surged into the area. Thunderstorms rapidly developed over north central North Dakota as the front pushed into the area. The strongest storms were over Rolette County. One storm produced a large tornado near Agate, that damaged a farmstead before crossing into Towner County, causing additional damage. The largest hail was also reported in Rolette County, where three inch diameter hail fell near Dunseith. A line of storms then developed southward along the front in the late evening, with an 81 mph wind gust in Dickey County near Ellendale.

By mid to late afternoon of August 3rd, a cold front had moved into central North Dakota. Ahead of the cold front, a warm front extended out to the east, or along the Canadian border. This put all of eastern North Dakota and the northwest quarter of Minnesota in the warm sector, where afternoon highs reached into the 80s to around 90, with dew point readings well into the 60s. A ribbon of extreme instability pooled from north to south just ahead of the cold front, with a lot of low level twisting evident in the wind field. Thunderstorms flared up in a northeast to southwest line around Rugby, North Dakota, then slowly tracked eastward during the evening. Some of the initial thunderstorms resulted in tornadoes in the Bisbee, North Dakota, area, as well as very large hail. In addition, these storms dropped large amounts of rain in the Bisbee area. As these initial storms moved east, they gradually weakened and became more disorganized. Meanwhile, storms along the southern edge of the line strengthened, gradually affecting the Devils Lake, North Dakota, area. Once again, several tornadoes were reported, with large hail as well. By late evening into the early morning hours of August 4th, the line over Devils Lake joined a line that blew up southwest of Jamestown, North Dakota, to form a continuous line of storms. This line of storms continued to move east, pushing through the central and southern Red River Valley, and into portions of west central Minnesota. By the time it reached west central Minnesota, the storms mainly produced damaging wind gusts.

A long tracked tornado developed about six miles south of Mylo, Rolette County, North Dakota, and traveled northeast before crossing into Towner County just northeast of Agate, along highway 66. The tornado did significant damage to two farmsteads in Rolette County, destroying pole barns and grain bins and damaging equipment. Crops were flattened along the tornado path. The tornado was highly publicized as national media showed a live feed from a storm chaser. This was a long tracked tornado of around 20 miles, about eight miles in Rolette County and 12 in Towner County. There were no injuries and no deaths with the tornado in either county. Based on the damage done its maximum rating was EF2 in Rolette and EF2 in Towner. From that, wind speeds were estimated to have been around 120 mph. See the tornado entry from Towner County, National Weather Service Grand Forks forecast area, for more details from Towner County.

This tornado began in Rolette County, then crossed into Towner County one mile north-northeast of Agate. In Towner County, it tracked for twelve miles. The tornado center tracked about 2.5 miles north of Bisbee and continued east across highway 281. The tornado demolished farm buildings at two farms and snapped over two dozen power poles at various locales. Peak winds were estimated at 120 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 tornado watch, issued at 20:38 UTC and running to 00:24 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:29 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 2016 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.