EF2 tornado, Killdeer, North Dakota, June 1, 2018

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

June 1, 2018

Touchdown

4:34 PM MDT (22:34 UTC)

Lifted

4:42 PM MDT (22:42 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$175,000

County

Dunn County

Touchdown point

47.500, -102.750

Lift-off point

47.550, -102.740

Record number

1806011634-01

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 second of two tornadoes in Dunn County this day. The earlier tornado hit nothing and so was rated EF0. This second tornado was rated EF2. It initially struck a mobile home shortly after it touched down, completely destroying the structure. Based on that damage the tornado at this location was EF2. From that EF2 rating the winds were estimated at 125 mph. No one was home at the time so there were no injuries or deaths at this location. The tornado then proceeded generally northward to a farmstead, where a stock trailer was flipped, a truck was pushed 200 yards through a fence, and an old out-building was completely destroyed. At the farm the damage corresponded to EF1. There were no injuries or deaths as all on the farm reached safety before the tornado struck. The tornado then continued to the north until it dissipated. The overall tornado rating is EF2.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS BIS issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:33 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:30 UTC and running to 00:54 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 19:50 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 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.

Watford (S25), 49 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:33 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 2018 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

14 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.