EF0 tornado in Polk County, Minnesota

Tornado August 8, 2025 · Polk County, Minnesota

EF0

Rating

4.0 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Grand Forks County, North Dakota → Polk County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A tornado produced intermittent EF-0 and EF-1 damage in Grand Forks, ND and East Grand Forks, MN. It initially touched down near the intersection of 38th St. and 32nd Ave in Grand Forks, ND where it bent a light pole from the top of the intersection stop lights. It tracked to the northeast just south of Altru Hospital along 17th Ave S., past Lewis and Clark elementary School, and then crossed the Red River of the North at Lincoln Drive Park into Minnesota. It lifted over the southern part of East Grand Forks, MN in western Polk County around the Red Lake River near Folsom Park. Most of the damage was to trees. The maximum rating for the tornado was EF-1 in Grand Forks County ND. The rating in Polk County is EF-0 based on a max wind estimated at 80 mph winds from hardwood tree damage before it dissipated in East Grand Forks, MN.

The wider storm

A QLCS type mesoscale convective system brought widespread severe thunderstorm winds to northwest Minnesota during the early morning hours. A tornado associated with this MCS also tracked from Grand Forks, ND to East Grand Forks, MN.

Began near East Grand Forks (47.9132, -97.0175).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1282448. 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.