EF1 Tornado — Washington, Minnesota

2019-07-28 · near Scandia, Washington, Minnesota

Event narrative

An EF1 tornado spun up on the southwest side of Sylvan Lake and continued northeast in a broken path through Bone Lake, and moved into Chisago County on 240th Street North, east of Morgan Avenue. The path length was approximately 4.4 miles across Washington County, with a maximum width of 440 yards. The worst damage occurred on Bone Lake where numerous large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some roof damage was noted, but most of the trees fell away from homes. Other damage along the path was associated with flattened corn, tree damage, a storage shed that had its roof blown off, and damage to a solar panel farm.

Wider weather episode

Several severe storms developed in a highly sheared environment. Instability was adequate enough to cause a few of the storms to become tornadic near Silver Lake, and around Forest Lake, and Scandia during the afternoon of Sunday, July 28th.

A storm survey found a total of six tornadoes. These surveys indicated an EF1 tornado formed near Silver Lake, and another between Forest Lake, north of Scandia, and into southern Chicago County.

The worst damage occurred along Bone Lake near Scandia, where very large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some of the trees caused significant damage to lake homes on Bone Lake.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.2478, -92.9020)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 835225. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.