TornadoLookup

Home / Minnesota / Waseca

EF1 tornado in Waseca County, Minnesota

Tornado August 5, 2024 · Waseca County, Minnesota

EF1
Rating
1.4 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The tornado mostly moved across fields, but it did snap the trunks of multiple trees. Other trees were uprooted, with one falling on a power line.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Otisco (44.0113, -93.4954).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Watonwan CountyEF1 Freeborn CountyEF1 Blue Earth CountyEF0 Faribault County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1211027. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.