EF1 tornado in Murray County, Minnesota

A tornado spun up just west of 280th Avenue around one-half mile south of 51st Street, where several tree limbs were broken in a tree line. The tornado tracked northeast across the Des Moines River where more limbs were downed into the river near 290th Avenue. As the tornado took a slightly more north-northeast turn for about one-third mile, the most significant damage occurred at a farmstead where one silo was toppled and another damaged, along with numerous downed tree limbs. The tornado continued more northeastward for around one mile where it damaged the north end of a barn and spread debris around one-quarter mile to the northeast into Cottonwood County. The tornado continued in Cottonwood County for less than one-third mile before dissipating at 1637CST. The tornado was rated EF1 while in Murray County, and EFU in Cottonwood County. The estimated maximum wind speed was 90 mph and the average path width in Murray County was 50 yards.

A cluster of early morning storms developed on the nose of steeper mid-level lapse rates and marginally strong elevated wind shear across far southeast South Dakota. Multicell convection produced spotty large hail moving into southwest Minnesota. During the afternoon, convection re-ignited near an advancing mesoscale convective vortex and moved northeast from eastern Nebraska into southwest Minnesota. With greater surface-based instability with a MLCAPE of 2000-3000 J/kg and deep-layer shear of 40-50 knots, storms quickly organized into a QLCS structure and produced hail up to ping-pong ball size, wind to 90 mph, and a few tornadoes across southwest Minnesota. Presidential Disaster Declarations were granted to Cottonwood and Nobles Counties for damages to public infrastructure.