Tornadoes · United States · North Dakota · 2026
Unrated tornado, Benson County, North Dakota, July 16, 2026
This Unrated tornado ran 0.9 miles across Benson County on July 16, 2026, touching down at 8:08 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS FGF's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as NW Knox. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.
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.
Unratedthis tornado
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 survey
- Rating, as surveyed
- Unrated, preliminary
- Date
- July 16, 2026
- Touchdown
- 8:08 PM CDT (01:08 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.9 miles (1.4 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Benson County
- Touchdown point
- 48.371, -99.740
- Lift-off point
- 48.362, -99.726
- Surveyed by
- NWS FGF
- The office's name for it
- NW Knox
- Survey last edited
- July 23, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
What the survey found
Multiple reports of thin tornado in open field northwest of Knox. This matches location of track apparent on Sentinel satellite. No currently known damage indicators along this track.
Written by NWS FGF in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.
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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:20 UTC and running to 03:46 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:20 UTC | 03:46 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | FGF |
| 01:10 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 01:23 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 01:24 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | FGF |
| 01:35 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
| 02:12 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | FGF |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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), 00:00Z
1.1 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. July 17, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1440 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -10 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2520 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2657 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 19 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 87 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 2.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 9.7 K/km
The surface observations
Rugby (RUG), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:15 UTC | 87.8 | 75.2 | 170° 8 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 23:35 UTC | 87.8 | 77 | 160° 8 kt | 1011.5 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 86 | 75.2 | 170° 6 kt | 1010.5 | VCTS | |
| 00:15 UTC | 86 | 77 | 170° 6 kt | 1010.5 | VCTS | |
| 00:35 UTC | 86 | 78.8 | 240° 7 kt | 1010.5 | VCTS | |
| 00:55 UTC | 84.2 | 77 | 310° 18 kt | 25 | 1010.8 | TS |
| 01:15 UTC | 82.4 | 77 | 340° 15 kt | 24 | 1011.9 | TS |
| 01:35 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 20° 10 kt | 17 | 1011.5 | VCTS |
| 01:55 UTC | 78.8 | 71.6 | 40° 9 kt | 14 | 1012.2 | VCTS |
| 02:15 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 90° 6 kt | 1012.5 | VCTS | |
| 02:35 UTC | 75.2 | 69.8 | 110° 4 kt | 1012.2 | VCTS | |
| 02:55 UTC | 73.4 | 69.8 | 110° 5 kt | 1012.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Minot AFB radar (KMBX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:05 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:04 UTC | LANDSPOUT | 6 S Wolford | Pierce, ND | Multiple photos of a thin tornado. Report relayed via social media. |
| 01:09 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nw Knox | Benson, ND | Multiple reports of thin tornado in open field. |
| 01:26 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S York | Benson, ND | A few large trees down. Also hail, but did not know the size, maybe the size of a quarter. |
| 02:10 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Maddock | Benson, ND | Tornado in progress 3.5 miles west of Maddock. |
| 02:11 UTC | TSTM WND GST 62 | 2 N Maddock | Benson, ND | NDAWN station 2N Maddock. |
| 03:00 UTC | RAIN 1.01 | 4 E Wolford | Pierce, ND | NDAWN mesonet 4E Wolford. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 16, 2026
2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.
Sources
NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.