EF1 Tornado — Watonwan, Minnesota

2024-08-05 · near Sveadahl, Watonwan, Minnesota

2.3 mi

Path length

50 yds

Path width

Event narrative

The tornado mostly moved across corn and bean fields, with non-continuous crop damage. It did move across a farmstead where it uprooted numerous trees, but there was little damage to nearby structures. A power pole was damaged. Several storm chasers took video of the tornado, including one who filmed it for nearly seven minutes.

Wider weather episode

A nearly stationary front was draped across southern Minnesota on the afternoon of Monday, August 5, 2024. A very unstable airmass with strong shear was present along and south of the front. Two supercells developed over Nicollet and Watonwan Counties, then strengthened while tracking southeast. Supercells eventually formed a line of severe thunderstorms, which continued to result in occasional tornadoes and damaging wind gusts across south central MN.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.0413, -94.7223)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1211017. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.