Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota

2020 tornadoes in North Dakota

22 tornadoes touched down in North Dakota in 2020, about the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2019 2021 The whole country in 2020

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 mph
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.

Every tornado in North Dakota in 2020

May 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 23	6:52 PM CDT	EF0	Benson	0.1	20

June 7 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 7	6:45 PM CDT	Unrated	McIntosh	0.2	30
June 7	7:20 PM CDT	Unrated	Dickey	0.4	30
June 7	8:52 PM CDT	EF0	Nelson	0.1	50

June 8 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 8	4:17 PM CDT	EF0	Steele	0.1	50
June 8	4:30 PM CDT	EF1	Steele	7.0	250	$35,000
June 8	5:09 PM CDT	EF0	Grand Forks	3.0	150	$5,000

June 20 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 20	5:25 PM CDT	Unrated	Dickey	0.3	30

June 28 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 28	8:27 PM CDT	Unrated	Morton	1.3	100
June 28	9:00 PM CDT	Unrated	Bottineau	0.4	50
June 28	9:05 PM CDT	EF1	Bottineau	1.0	100	$150,000

July 7 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 7	11:30 PM CDT	EF1	Oliver	0.2	50			$10,000

July 17 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 17	2:59 PM CDT	EF0	Benson	0.1	30
July 17	3:47 PM CDT	EF1	Benson	0.3	40			$20,000

July 20 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 20	3:10 PM CDT	Unrated	McLean	0.2	25

August 4 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 4	7:38 PM CDT	Unrated	Mountrail	4.4	100

August 9 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
August 9	11:58 AM CDT	EF0	Cavalier	0.3	40
August 9	2:02 PM CDT	EF1	LaMoure	0.9	100	$225,000
August 9	2:13 PM CDT	Unrated	LaMoure	2.2	100
August 9	2:17 PM CDT	EF1	Barnes	2.9	150
August 9	2:19 PM CDT	Unrated	LaMoure	0.3	50
August 9	2:40 PM CDT	EF0	Traill	2.0	40

Nearby

Every tornado in North Dakota since 1950 Warnings in force in North Dakota The live radar over North Dakota

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.