EFU Tornado — Mclean, North Dakota

2025-09-14 · near Mercer, Mclean, North Dakota

Event narrative

This is the second event entry for one tornado that passed through two counties, Sheridan and McLean. The tornado touched down in an open field southwest of Pickardville and impacted no structures before it ended southeast of Mercer. Shortly after this tornado dissipated, a separate damaging tornado developed west of Mercer. With this tornado, there was no damage to evaluate. By National Weather Service policy the tornado is rated EF-U (Unknown).

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 → (47.4520, -100.6730)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1294917. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.