EF1 tornado, Litchville to Hastings, North Dakota, September 19, 2017

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

September 19, 2017

Touchdown

4:41 PM CDT (21:41 UTC)

Lifted

4:47 PM CDT (21:47 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (6.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

Crop damage

$3,000

County

Barnes County

Touchdown point

46.660, -98.170

Lift-off point

46.670, -98.115

Record number

1709191541-01

Late in the afternoon of September 19th, a frontal boundary pushed into the Devils Lake to Jamestown (ND) corridor. Due to fairly extensive cloud cover throughout the day, late afternoon temperatures only ranged in the low 60s over the Devils Lake region, to the lower 70s over southeast North Dakota into west central Minnesota. Even though temperatures remained on the cool side, a strong moisture surge occurred. Cloud cover decreased somewhat over southeast North Dakota during the late afternoon, where thunderstorms flared up south of Jamestown. As this large thunderstorm cell moved into southwest Barnes County (ND), it produced a tornado near Litchville. This cell evolved into a larger storm complex, which moved east-northeast through the evening. This storm complex produced large hail, strong winds, and a second tornado along the Norman/Polk (MN) county border in Minnesota.

The tornado peeled shingles and roofing off of homes at two farmsteads roughly a mile apart, and snapped or uprooted several box-elder and spruce trees at both farmsteads. Branch scatter through a shelterbelt located midway between the farms suggested a possible secondary vortex. Peak winds were estimated at 110 mph.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:41 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:40 UTC and running to 04:07 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:41 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 2017 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.