EF2 tornado, Berea to Valley City, North Dakota, June 20, 2025

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 20, 2025

Touchdown

10:29 PM CDT (03:29 UTC)

Lifted

10:50 PM CDT (03:50 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.3 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Barnes County

Touchdown point

46.892, -98.102

Lift-off point

46.857, -97.993

Record number

2506202129-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 155 mph.

• Top floor of well built home and roof destroyed with interior walls around stairwell still in place. House built approximately 10 to 12 years before, but exact date not known. Walls of top floor attached by nail. Lower floor still solidly in place with steel siding removed on several sides of home. Attached garage also destroyed, which was bolted through wood to foundation. Several nearby trucks and a trailer rolled then carried to the east with vehicles and engines scattered in an arc estimated at 0.2 miles from the south to northeast. Other trucks and vehicles moved short distances within the proximity of the home.
• Large steel Morton building completely destroyed. Less than 5 years old. 50 by 20 ft structure. Held in place by bolts through plates along walls every 12ft into concrete foundation. Cars inside moved around and piled against each other. 2 More smaller sheds completely destroyed. They were wood and metal structures, with walls attached via bolt through wood and no plates or metal straps.
• Older home built in 1893. All walls destroyed with some collapsed into the home. Interior walls still standing. Outside walls were attached by a large number of longer than average nails in close proximity. Nearby barns and sheds were also destroyed. The sheds were attached to ground with nails in boards. Barn was older in nature.
• Trees snapped and sheared by about one third of original height. 2 trees partially debarked on windward side facing nearby home. Only large branches left on trees.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

During the evening of Friday, June 20th into the early morning hours of June 21st, much of the region was affected by severe weather. Supercell thunderstorms developed across southeast North Dakota ahead of an approaching convective complex, producing multiple strong, destructive, and fatal tornadoes. This was followed by a powerful line of severe thunderstorms categorized as a derecho, which tracked across much of the region resulting in widespread straight line wind damage. After the derecho passed through the region, there was a period of prolonged destructive winds that affected portions of central and east central North Dakota, as well as adjacent portions of Minnesota. This was a unique event due to the combination of the violent tornadoes ahead of the derecho, and the long duration of significant winds that followed the derecho. Based on estimates provided by North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, the state lost anywhere from 50 to 80 million bushels of grain storage capacity from these storms.

This tornado developed in central Barnes County 5 miles southwest of Valley City and tracked southeast, caused EF-0 and EF-1 damage to trees and several homes. It continued over a ridge crossing the Sheyenne River, then caused EF-1 and EF-2 damage to several homes eventually crossing 117th Ave SE before lifting 3 miles south of Valley City. This tornado was almost 6 miles long.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:56 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:54 UTC and running to 08:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:16 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), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:28 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 2025 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

23 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.