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EF1 tornado in Beltrami County, Minnesota

Tornado August 26, 2018 · Beltrami County, Minnesota

EF1
Rating
1.0 mi
Path length
150 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. 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

Numerous trees were blown down along a narrow track in the Red Lake State Forest, some falling across highway 72. Some of the trees appeared to have been snapped and thrown onto the road. Peak winds were estimated at 90 mph.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms flared up across southern Cass County (North Dakota) on the afternoon of August 26th, dropping some large hail. After a several hour break, another storm intensified and dropped large hail over north central Becker and southern Mahnomen counties in Minnesota. Then after 8 pm CDT, a line of storms from north central North Dakota spread into the Devils Lake region. These storms produced damaging wind gusts. After 9 pm CDT, another line of storms formed ahead of the Devils Lake line, and these also tracked to the east. This line brought hail and damaging wind gusts to the Valley City and Grand Forks areas. Eventually, both lines of storms moved into the central and northern Red River Valley, then progressed into northwest Minnesota. As they did, they continued to produce damaging winds. Within the lines, several long track tornadoes also formed. Both of these occurred from the northeast corner of Norman County up toward the Lower Red Lake in Minnesota. Quite a bit of tree damage resulted along this track.

Began near Waskish Muni Arpt (48.1200, -94.5100).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 776249. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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