Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2018
EF0 tornado, Killdeer, North Dakota, June 1, 2018
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Dunn County on June 1, 2018, touching down at 4:26 PM MDT and reaching 50 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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, 2018
- Touchdown
- 4:26 PM MDT (22:26 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:27 PM MDT (22:27 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Dunn County
- Touchdown point
- 47.470, -102.840
- Lift-off point
- 47.472, -102.835
- Record number
- 1806011626-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong short-wave trough pushed into the Northern Plains, with severe storms initiating over eastern Montana into northeast Wyoming. Severe thunderstorms eventually pushed into North Dakota, where very strong instability and deep layer shear were noted. There were five tornadoes.
This was the first of two tornadoes in Dunn County this day. This tornado remained in an open field. No damage occurred and so it was rated EF0. A second tornado in Dunn County later this day was rated EF2.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 20:30 UTC and running to 00:54 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:30 UTC | 00:54 UTC | Tornado Watch | BIS |
| 22:01 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BIS |
| 22:33 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | BIS |
| 22:56 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BIS |
| 23:02 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | BIS |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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.
Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), 12:00Z
10.4 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. June 1, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -77780 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1549 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 438 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 623 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
The surface observations
Watford (S25), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:35 UTC | 68 | 68 | 80° 8 kt | 1002.7 | VCTS | |
| 20:55 UTC | 66.2 | 66.2 | 70° 5 kt | 10 | 1002.4 | -TSRA |
| 21:15 UTC | 66.2 | 66.2 | 330° 10 kt | 1002 | TS | |
| 21:35 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 360° 10 kt | 1001 | -DZ | |
| 21:55 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 310° 12 kt | 1001.4 | TS | |
| 22:15 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 290° 11 kt | 20 | 1002 | VCTS RA |
| 22:35 UTC | 62.6 | 62.6 | 10° 7 kt | 1002 | TS | |
| 22:55 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 290° 10 kt | 15 | 1003 | VCTS |
| 23:15 UTC | 64.4 | 64.4 | 290° 14 kt | 21 | 1003 | |
| 23:35 UTC | 59 | 59 | 270° 19 kt | 25 | 1004.1 | |
| 23:55 UTC | 60.8 | 60.8 | 270° 18 kt | 25 | 1004.4 | |
| 00:15 UTC | 62.6 | 62.6 | 280° 17 kt | 26 | 1006.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 175 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:29 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 6 Wsw Grassy Butte | Mckenzie, ND | A STORM CHASER REPORTED A WELL DEFINED FUNNEL CLOUD APPROXIMATELY 6 WSW OF THE TOWN OF GRASSY BUTTE. |
| 21:52 UTC | HAIL 1 | 13 S Watford City | Mckenzie, ND | LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED PEA TO QUARTER SIZED HAIL COVERING THE GROUND AT MILE MARKER 127, WHICH IS 13 MILES SOUTH OF WATFORD CITY. |
| 22:26 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ese Oakdale | Dunn, ND | BRIEF TOUCHDOWN IN A FIELD. NO DAMAGE. |
| 22:35 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ene Oakdale | Dunn, ND | MOBILE HOME COMPLETELY DESTROYED. NO ONE WAS HOME AT THE TIME. NO INJURIES. NO DEATHS. THIS WAS LIKELY AN EF2 TORNADO, BASED ON THE DAMAGE EVIDENT IN THE PICTURES. |
| 22:37 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ene Oakdale | Dunn, ND | STOCK TRAILER WAS FLIPPED. A TRUCK WAS PUSHED 200 YARDS AND THROUGH A FENCE. AN OLD OUTBUILDING WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED. ALL ON THE FARM REACHED SAFETY AND THERE WERE NO INJURIES. NO DEATHS. THIS FARM WAS ABOUT ONE MILE |
| 22:41 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 8 Ne Oakdale | Dunn, ND | 3-5 MILES NORTH OF MILE MARKER 183 ON HIGHWAY 22. |
| 22:41 UTC | TORNADO | 8 Ne Oakdale | Dunn, ND | 3-5 MILES NORTH OF MILE MARKER 183 ON HIGHWAY 22. |
| 22:55 UTC | TORNADO | 3 N Mandaree | Mckenzie, ND | PUBLIC VIDEO. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 23:10 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 6 W 4 Bears Lodge | Mckenzie, ND | FUNNEL CLOUD IS MOVING NORTHEAST. RELAYED THROUGH STATE RADIO. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 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, 2018
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1 | 12:11 PM MDT | EF2 | Washakie, WY | 1.0 | 300 | $20,000 | ||
| June 1 | 12:16 PM MDT | EF2 | Johnson, WY | 1.0 | 300 | |||
| June 1 | 1:34 PM MDT | EF0 | Campbell, WY | 1.0 | 25 | |||
| June 1 | 1:41 PM MDT | EF3 | Campbell, WY | 3.8 | 200 | 2 | ||
| June 1 | 1:55 PM MDT | EF1 | Campbell, WY | 0.5 | 25 | $50,000 | ||
| June 1 | 1:59 PM MDT | EF1 | Campbell, WY | 4.6 | 50 | |||
| June 1 | 4:34 PM MDT | EF2 | Dunn, ND | 3.5 | 200 | $175,000 | ||
| June 1 | 5:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Morton, ND | 7.3 | 100 | $5,000 | ||
| June 1 | 5:55 PM CDT | EF0 | McKenzie, ND | 0.3 | 50 | |||
| June 1 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Mercer, ND | 1.4 | 75 | |||
| June 1 | 7:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Walworth, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 1 | 8:43 PM CDT | Unrated | Kent, TX | 0.0 | 30 | |||
| June 1 | 9:14 PM CDT | EF0 | Valley, NE | 0.0 | 40 | |||
| June 1 | 9:59 PM CDT | EF0 | Madison, NE | 0.1 | 50 |
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.