Thunderstorm Wind — Grant, North Dakota

2025-06-20 · near Elgin, Grant, North Dakota

Event narrative

A large outbuilding had most of its roof panels blown off.

Wider weather episode

An outbreak of severe thunderstorms brought extreme winds, very large hail, and multiple tornadoes across much of southern North Dakota from the late afternoon into the nighttime hours. A low-pressure system in southeastern Montana and a warm front stretching eastward across southern North Dakota provided a focus for the severe thunderstorms. Several environmental parameters were in place for a significant outbreak, most notable was the amount of deep-layer wind shear. The lowest layer of the atmosphere (up to 1 mile above the surface) also contained strong wind shear, which was one of the key ingredients that resulted in the higher risk for strong tornadoes. This event has been classified as a derecho, a term that is reserved for the most intense, widespread, and long-lasting lines of severe thunderstorms. By definition, a derecho is a widespread severe windstorm characterized by a family of destructive downbursts containing multiple 75+ mph gusts associated with the system.

Thunderstorms initially developed in eastern Montana in the late afternoon and moved into southwest North Dakota. Severe wind gusts around 60 mph were reported in far southwest North Dakota from Dickinson to Bowman during the early evening. Thereafter, storms grew into a pronounced line as they moved east and began accelerating. Shortly thereafter, extremely strong wind gusts started occurring, including a measured 94 mph gust to the northwest of Elgin in Grant County, and estimated 95 mph wind gusts in Hettinger County where a farmstead was severely damaged. Meanwhile, a supercell thunderstorm developed just south of Jamestown, and produced three-inch diameter hail as it moved northward into the city. This storm then slowly moved to the east-northeast and produced a brief tornado between Jamestown and Spiritwood. Shortly thereafter, a larger tornado formed near Spiritwood and moved to the east-northeast into Barnes County where EF-3 damage occurred, before tracking back into Stutsman County while it was dissipating. Specific details on the damage with this event can be found in the National Weather Service-Grand Forks Storm Data entry. Another supercell thunderstorm then formed south of the initial storm, moving southeast through southern Stutsman and northern LaMoure Counties. This storm produced a tornado near Adrian and another north of Verona. During this time, the line of storms to the west continued to strengthen, producing a wide swath of 80 to 100 mph wind gusts as it moved through south central North Dakota and across the James River Valley during the mid-evening into the nighttime hours. The derecho caused extensive tree and structure damage along its path, with significant damage to grain storage equipment and power transmission poles. The highest measured wind gust associated with the derecho was 101 mph at a North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) station 5 miles northwest of Linton. There were also several tornadoes produced by the intense line of storms, including two tornadoes rated as EF-1 (north of Interstate 94 between Crystal Springs and Medina near the Kidder/Stutsman County Line, and to the southwest of Grace City in Foster County), and one tornado rated as EF-2 (north of Sweet Briar Lake in Morton County). The derecho resulted in one injury which occurred in a housing development to the south of Lincoln in Burleigh County as a male was outdoors and was struck by flying debris. Also, one indirect fatality occurred near Courtenay in Stutsman County where a 76-year-old male died in his sleep from his breathing device not operating properly due to the power outage caused by the storm.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (46.6000, -101.8500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1271904. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.