EF4 tornado in Wadena County, Minnesota

This multi-vortex wedge tornado began in Otter Tail County about 3 miles southwest of the city of Wadena at 459 PM CDT. It tracked for about 2 miles in Otter Tail County, then it continued for another 8 miles in Wadena County. The tornado ravaged the western half of the community of Wadena. Numerous homes were flattened to the ground and at least one was completely swept from its foundation and destroyed. Public and industrial buildings were wrecked, the fairgrounds were damaged, and headstones in the cemetery were overturned. School buses and vehicles were propelled through the air for hundreds of yards. The tornado hit on the day of the Wadena all-school reunion, so many additional people were in the area. Roughly 100 people were displaced from their homes. Peak winds were estimated at 170 mph.

Conditions were ripe by the afternoon of the 17th for a major severe weather outbreak. A surface low had moved into east central North Dakota with an occluded front extending to the southeast. Warm and humid air was in place ahead of the front, with a much drier airmass pushing in behind it. The 500mb low was located over northwest North Dakota with a nice southwest to northeast upper jet pushing into eastern North Dakota. Two lines of convection formed by late afternoon, one from Roseau County down toward Eastern Otter Tail County and the other over east central North Dakota. Nearly all the cells that formed took on a classic hook shape with rotation very evident on radar imagery. Multiple tornado warnings were issued before the event wound down by mid evening. The strongest tornadoes were determined to be EF4 tornadoes, two in west central Minnesota and one in northeast North Dakota.