EF0 Tornado — Freeborn, Minnesota

2025-06-25 · near Alden, Freeborn, Minnesota

Event narrative

Trained spotters and some members of the public took photos of a tornado that crossed the southern portion of Freeborn Lake. Before crossing the lake, it damaged trees at an abandoned farmstead. After crossing the lake, it damaged some corn on the eastern side of the lake before it dissipated.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted north into southern Minnesota on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 25th. Strong surface heating to the south of the front with dew points in the 70s allowed for ample instability to develop across the area. Scattered thunderstorms developed in response to the instability and flash flooding occurred in western and east central MN. Strong low-level shear allowed these low-topped supercells to rotate and produce four EF-0s and one EF-1 tornadoes across Faribault and Freeborn Counties in southern Minnesota.

Most tornadoes were on the ground between one to three miles and approximately 25 yds wide. The longest tornado path was an EF-1 that occurred west-southwest of Hartland in Freeborn County for about 5.2 miles with peak winds at 105 mph. The tornado damaged crops, power poles, and several farm outbuildings.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.7190, -93.6035)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1264819. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.