EF1 tornado, Sharon to Logan Center, North Dakota, June 8, 2020

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

June 8, 2020

Touchdown

4:30 PM CDT (21:30 UTC)

Lifted

4:42 PM CDT (21:42 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

Counties

Steele and Grand Forks counties

Touchdown point

47.650, -97.900

Lift-off point

47.730, -97.820

Record number

2006081530-01

For this event, the 500mb pattern featured ridging over eastern Minnesota and Wisconsin, with south-southwest flow over eastern North Dakota and the northwest quarter of Minnesota. At the surface, by the early afternoon of June 8th, a cold front had set up along a line from Cavalier to Oakes, North Dakota, with the Red River Valley into adjacent areas of the northwest quarter of Minnesota in the warm sector. In this warm sector, temperatures ranged in the 80s with dew points around 70. By the mid afternoon, thunderstorms initially formed along the boundary over northeast North Dakota and tracked into the far northwest corner of Minnesota. By late afternoon, additional storms formed around Cooperstown, North Dakota, and also tracked northeast into the far northwest corner of Minnesota. Kittson County, Minnesota, received several rounds of heavy rainfall. By mid evening, most storms tracked between Thief River Falls and Lake of the Woods. Finally, more storms formed and tracked across portions of west central Minnesota during the early morning hours of June 9th.

A video of a brief tornado touchdown was posted on social media. The touchdown occurred in an open field and no damage was noted. Peak winds were estimated at 70 mph.

This tornado tracked intermittently to the north-northeast for over 7 miles, roughly 2 miles of the track in Steele County, then the remainder of the 5 miles in Grand Forks County (where it ended around 442 pm CDT). The tornado blew out the back wall of a pole shed and tore off some of its steel sheathing. It also snapped or uprooted several cottonwood and pine trees in shelterbelts along its path. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.

This tornado began 4 miles north of Sharon, in Steele County, at 430 pm CDT. The tornado tracked for about 2 miles in Steele County, before it crossed into Grand Forks County, where the path continued for another 5 miles. The tornado blew out the back wall of a pole shed and also tore off some of its steel sheathing. It snapped or uprooted several cottonwood and pine trees in shelterbelts along its path. Peak winds were estimated at 95 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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:01 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

Rands (S32), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Fargo/Grand Forks radar (KMVX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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 2020 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.