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EF1 tornado in Burke County, North Dakota

Tornado June 7, 2026 · Burke County, North Dakota

EF1
Rating
3.3 mi
Whole path
50 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Burke County → Ward County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 brief, dusty tornado touched down southeast of Bowbells. The tornado formed and soon after knocked over a grain bin and sheared off the top half of pine trees. The tornado then tracked to the northeast for a couple of miles before dissipating before reaching the river. This tornado continued into Ward County. Based on the damage done this tornado was rated EF-1, and from that wind speeds were estimated to be around 95 mph.

The wider storm

An upper level low and surface cold front combined with a very unstable airmass resulted in severe thunderstorms across western and central North Dakota. Supercell thunderstorms initially produced very large hail before transitioning to a linear storm mode, which led to widespread significant thunderstorm wind gusts. The largest reported hail was 3 inches in diameter, occurring southwest of Medora in Billings County. Measured wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph were common as storms moved across western and central North Dakota. The area with the most significant wind damage occurred across Stark, Morton, Mercer, and McLean Counties. In a swath from Dickinson, to Hebron, to Beulah, to Douglas Bay, to west of Garrison, damage from thunderstorm wind gusts led to winds estimated from 80 to 100 mph. The strongest measured wind gust came from a personal weather station just east of Beulah that reported a gust of 103 mph. Damage included campers turned over, large trees downed, roof damage, power outages, garages destroyed, vehicle damage, siding damage, and dented grain bins.

Began near Bowbells (48.7762, -102.2050).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1357754. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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