EF1 tornado in Steele County, North Dakota

This tornado tracked intermittently to the north-northeast for over 7 miles, roughly 2 miles of the track in Steele County, then the remainder of the 5 miles in Grand Forks County (where it ended around 442 pm CDT). The tornado blew out the back wall of a pole shed and tore off some of its steel sheathing. It also snapped or uprooted several cottonwood and pine trees in shelterbelts along its path. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.

For this event, the 500mb pattern featured ridging over eastern Minnesota and Wisconsin, with south-southwest flow over eastern North Dakota and the northwest quarter of Minnesota. At the surface, by the early afternoon of June 8th, a cold front had set up along a line from Cavalier to Oakes, North Dakota, with the Red River Valley into adjacent areas of the northwest quarter of Minnesota in the warm sector. In this warm sector, temperatures ranged in the 80s with dew points around 70. By the mid afternoon, thunderstorms initially formed along the boundary over northeast North Dakota and tracked into the far northwest corner of Minnesota. By late afternoon, additional storms formed around Cooperstown, North Dakota, and also tracked northeast into the far northwest corner of Minnesota. Kittson County, Minnesota, received several rounds of heavy rainfall. By mid evening, most storms tracked between Thief River Falls and Lake of the Woods. Finally, more storms formed and tracked across portions of west central Minnesota during the early morning hours of June 9th.