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EF3 tornado in Hubbard County, Minnesota

Tornado June 6, 2008 · Hubbard County, Minnesota

EF3

Rating

7.3 mi

Path length

400 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado tracked for about 7 miles from the southwest edge of Big Sand Lake, across Pickerel Lake, to 1 mile northwest of Emmaville by 947 am CDT. Maximum width was around 400 yards with peak winds to 160 mph. The tornado completely destroyed two homes and damaged several others on Pickerel Lake. It flattened dozens of acres of forest.

The wider storm

A vertically stacked cold-core low pressure system moved into the Red River Valley and brought ideal conditions for low topped mini supercells. A negatively tilted 500 mb trough, diffluent height field, and a strong upper level disturbance were all present. At the surface, there was even a warm front east of the low, toward Hubbard and Wadena Counties.

Began near Dorset (46.9800, -95.0200).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Wadena County EF1 Hubbard County EF1 Hubbard County EF0 Hubbard County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 118399. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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