Tornado in Nobles County, Minnesota

A brief tornado occurred in an open field around 6 miles south of Rushmore. The tornado was estimated to touch down around one-half mile northwest of the intersection of 320th Street and Jones Avenue. The tornado tracked northeast for less than two minutes across open fields before lifting south of 310th Street west of King Avenue. There were no damage indicators present to derive a rating. The average path width was estimated at 25 yards based on video evidence.

An approaching mid-level disturbance broke a weak cap and allowed storms to erupt during the afternoon along a slow moving frontal boundary. These storms rapidly organized into short bowing segments and then became highly linear across northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota during the evening. Initial supercell storms produced large hail with as much as 2000-3000 J/kg MLCAPE, but DCAPE of around 750-1000 J/kg allowed for the development of organized cold pools and an increasing wind threat. Several brief and highly visible tornadic spin-ups developed along the line of storms by late afternoon and evening across far eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.