EF2 Tornado — Sheridan, North Dakota

2025-09-14 · near Denhoff, Sheridan, North Dakota

Event narrative

This tornado touched down south of Denhoff about three miles north of the Burleigh County line and moved in a northerly direction to the west of Highway 14. When the tornado reached about 6 miles south of Denhoff, it destroyed a 30 by 60 foot pole barn. A nearby barn had two skylights torn off the roof. Another nearby building had some minor damage. At this same property, a double wide mobile home propped up on a basement had the roof completely torn off and blown to the west side of the home. The southeast corner of this mobile home was also missing a wall. A car parked on the property was picked up and set down near the mobile home. Debris was scattered throughout the property and there was substantial tree damage, mostly snapped branches. About a mile south of Denhoff, a single wide mobile home was flipped. There was also debris scattered up to a quarter mile away from this property, along with noticeable tree damage and moved hay bales. The tornado then continued to the west and north of Denhoff. Near a gravel pit to the north of Highway 200, there was more hay bale and tree damage. Several other properties then experience damage from two to five miles north of Denhoff. There was hay bale damage and hay embedded in a road sign's wood post north of Denhoff. Roof panels were missing from a farm outbuilding north of this road sign. Further north, another property had missing skylights on a farm building, damage to a small grain bin, and a children's wooden play area destroyed. Multiple areas of tree damage were also noted. The tornado was then dissipated about 6 miles north of Dehoff. No deaths or injuries occurred during this event. Based on the damage done this tornado was rated EF-2, and from that wind speeds were estimated to be around 120 mph.

Wider weather episode

A low-pressure center moved north from South Dakota to North Dakota with a warm front lifting to the north. This resulted in strong low-level wind shear over central North Dakota. This shear combined with low cloud bases caused by a high amount of moisture in the lower atmosphere to produce multiple low-topped supercells which produced a low amount of lighting. From these supercells, 20 tornadoes developed over central North Dakota which moved in a generally southerly to northerly direction. Two tornadoes produced EF-2 damage. Near Denhoff in Sheridan County, multiple buildings including mobile homes and farm out-buildings were severely damaged along the tornado path, along with damage to many trees and some vehicles. This multi-vortex tornado had a total path length of approximately 13 miles. The second area of EF-2 tornado damage was about 13 miles west of Linton in Emmons County, where a barn was destroyed near Beaver Bay. Two other tornadoes produced EF-1 damage. Near Menoken in Burleigh County, there was damage to trees and the roof of a farm outbuilding. Near Mercer in McLean County, a pole barn was partially destroyed, and a mobile home on wheels was destroyed. Numerous other tornadoes occurred with no damage to evaluate. By National Weather Service policy, those tornadoes were rated EF-U (Unknown). Otherwise, no damaging straight-line winds were reported, and the only large hail reported was one inch in diameter, which occurred near Balfour in McHenry County. In addition, flash flooding occurred over parts of Burleigh and Morton Counties as a result of the heavy rain from the storms. Many vehicles were stranded in Bismarck as multiple roads were underwater, and in Morton County several rural roads had water flowing over.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (47.3760, -100.2500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1294762. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.