EF0 tornado, Benson County, North Dakota, July 16, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

July 16, 2026

Touchdown

9:04 PM CDT (02:04 UTC)

Lifted

9:11 PM CDT (02:11 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Benson County

Touchdown point

47.927, -99.657

Lift-off point

47.910, -99.628

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS FGF

The office's name for it

SW Maddock

Survey last edited

July 31, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A tornado touched down approximately 4 to 5 miles southwest of Maddock and tracked southeast where it hit a shelterbelt and barns doing EF-0 damage. The track is based on Sentinel satellite analysis showing scarring associated with the tornado tracking to the southeast towards where the damage to the trees and barns were filmed. Width is approximated from scarring visible on Sentinel satellite with the maximum width occurring to the southwest of Legreid Lake early on in the lifecycle.

Written by NWS FGF in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FGF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Video from storm chaser of tree damage. Branches twisted and broken on multiple trees indicative of EF-0 tornado.
• Video from storm chaser shows aluminum roof panels dislodged and some removed from barn.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS FGF issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:35 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:20 UTC and running to 03:46 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, 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 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.

Harvey (5H4), 26 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), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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 2026 tornado in North DakotaEvery tornado in North Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in North Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

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.

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.