Tornado in North Dakota Upgraded to EF5, First in 12 Years

This past summer, a tornado that swept through North Dakota was reclassified as an EF5, featuring winds exceeding 200 mph. This classification marks it as the most severe type of tornado, and it’s the first EF5 recorded on U.S. soil in over a decade, as meteorologists reported on Monday.

The tornado, which struck Enderlin on June 20, inflicted significant destruction and resulted in three fatalities. It traveled more than 12 miles (about 19 kilometers) while reaching a maximum width of approximately 1.05 miles.

A meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Grand Forks noted that analysis of the weather data revealed winds surpassing 210 mph.

In comparison, the tornado with the highest recorded winds, the Bridge Creek and Moore tornado in Oklahoma from 1999, peaked at 321 mph.

Since the enhanced Fujita scale was adopted by the National Weather Service in 2007, only 10 tornadoes have been classified as EF5.

“Several strong tornadoes have occurred in the past 12 years, but no damage indicators were present at those times to justify an EF5 rating,” stated Melinda Bealend, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “It’s often tricky to pinpoint the magnitude of a tornado.”

This summer’s tornadoes have wreaked havoc on farms, derailed fully loaded freight cars, knocked down transmission towers, and uprooted trees. Interestingly, one tanker was found quite a distance from where it originated.

The following morning, meteorologists from the Grand Forks office went out to assess the damage. Determining a tornado’s strength can take anywhere from days to weeks, as it relies on analyzing the destruction to structures and trees. The complexity of assessing this tornado was heightened due to the unique damage inflicted on rail cars.

Initially, the tornado was estimated to be an EF3.

The formation of the tornado was attributed to warm, humid air interacting with thunderstorms, according to Bealend. Additionally, there was a notable amount of wind shearing—fluctuations in both speed and direction of the wind—which contributed to the tornado’s development.

Tragically, two men and one woman lost their lives in separate incidents near Enderlin, located about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of Fargo. During the storm, thousands of homes experienced power outages.

At one farm, nothing remained but a basement; the rest had been swept away, with debris scattered in the wind’s wake.