Strong tornado in northern Minnesota

Andy Wehrle

Andy Wehrle

EF5
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2018 6 N CROOKSTON POLK MN 4786 9661 CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO A WELL CONSTRUCTED POLE BARN. LARGE TREES WERE ALSO SNAPPED IN HALF. TORNADO WAS F2 IN INTENSITY WITH WINDS ESTIMATED BETWEEN 140 AND 150 MPH. (FGF)

Guess this was the place to be today, but who would've ever thought? :lol:

I find it interesting that there are no other severe reports around the tornado. Any thoughts on how a storm could produce an F2 but no hail?

Edit: Updated storm reports has a straight-line wind report nearby:
2015 UNK 4 N CROOKSTON POLK MN 4783 9661 DAMAGE TO A POLE BARN. TREE TOPS CUT DOWN. (FGF)
 
huh?

Maybe all the spotters etc. in the area of the tornado were so focused on the tornado that they didnt report/missed any large hail/wind events that probably occured.
 
"I find it interesting that there are no other severe reports around the tornado. Any thoughts on how a storm could produce an F2 but no hail?"

I'm not sure there is a one-to-one connection between a tornado and hail... And I would have to imagine that spotters wouldn't notice hail falling on their heads just because they saw a tornado in the distance!
 
I'm not familiar with the storm...but a friend of mine said he only saw 45 dbZ MAX on the radar with this tornadic storm. Should this be true, I would love to go back and look at it. But it is quite peculiar, even if chasers didn't witness other severe wx, that no other reports were associated with it from the public or law enforcement/public safety.
 
huh?

Actually I heard at a spotter training class this year that min supercells can produce tornados with little or no large hail/damaging winds, maybe it was a mini supercell?
 
"But it is quite peculiar, even if chasers didn't witness other severe wx, that no other reports were associated with it from the public or law enforcement/public safety."

The largest outbreak Michigan's had in the past few years was in 2000 with 18 tornadoes, all from a line of low-topped storms, 30-40dbZ, with little lightning and just heavy rain. No wind damage other than isolated F0-F1 tornadoes.
 
wow

At the beginning of September last year there was a tornado outbreak in Iowa when there was very little cape but extreme wind shear, no hail reports and only 1 highwind report, at least 1 tornado was rated F1. At least 9 tornados "touched down" that day. Sorry for using the words at least so much...lol
 
I was on a storm just north of the one that dropped the alleged F2 tornado. As far as I know, there was no tornado warning out on the storm. The cell was well within the limitations of the radar which to me suggests that the area of rotation was small, short lived, not particularly strong, and/or below the radar beam... as I doubt the FGF office was on coffee break. Gradient winds alone this day were 30-40 mph. I suspect that this was a non-mesocyclinic tornado, aka landspout, albeit a rather potent one. One could also question the potency as the F2 rating was awarded for trees and a pole barn.
 
Originally posted by Justin Turcotte
I was on a storm just north of the one that dropped the alleged F2 tornado. As far as I know, there was no tornado warning out on the storm. The cell was well within the limitations of the radar which to me suggests that the area of rotation was small, short lived, not particularly strong, and/or below the radar beam... as I doubt the FGF office was on coffee break. Gradient winds alone this day were 30-40 mph. I suspect that this was a non-mesocyclinic tornado, aka landspout, albeit a rather potent one. One could also question the potency as the F2 rating was awarded for trees and a pole barn.
Click to expand...

I think Wellington, KS got an F2 rating off a nonmesocyclonic tornado in 2003 or 2004, it may have hit some houses though...Jon Davies has a paper on nonmesocyclonic tornadoes on his website. http://members.cox.net/jdavies1/
 
I wonder if it was a case of nobody being around to see the hail. From looking at a map that part of MN appears to be sparsely populated.
 
Originally posted by Jeff Wear
I wonder if it was a case of nobody being around to see the hail. From looking at a map that part of MN appears to be sparsely populated.
Click to expand...
Remember that Storm Data reports are collected to serve one main purpose, to verify NWS warnings. Therefore, if there was a TOR warning that was verified in real-time with a tornado report, it is quite likely that the WFO didn't agressively persue other hail/wind reports within the same warning area/timeframe.
 
Just curious about something that was posted.

Mods, feel free to move to another topic if you feel the need.

I think Wellington, KS got an F2 rating off a nonmesocyclonic tornado in 2003 or 2004, it may have hit some houses though...Jon Davies has a paper on nonmesocyclonic tornadoes on his website. http://members.cox.net/jdavies1/[/quote]



Nonmesocyclonc tornados? I had always thought that a thunderstorm has to be a meso to spawn a tornado.
 
Re: huh?

Originally posted by Craig Maire II
Actually I heard at a spotter training class this year that min supercells can produce tornados with little or no large hail/damaging winds, maybe it was a mini supercell?
Click to expand...


We get those all the time here in Southwestern Ontario. The last major event was May 22nd of last year when a cell that looked like crap on radar dropped an F2 (Mitchell, ON) and an F3 (Gads Hill, ON) within 10 minutes and 20 kilometers (12 miles) of each other.
 
Re: Just curious about something that was posted.

Read a paper several years back (post Vortex 95 and 97), by Erik Rasmussen that identified 13 different ways a tornado could form based on current observations.

Our tornados - those that occur in NW Oregon (hey they happen!) are not normally associated with mesos - seldom show up on NWS radar and are a bummer to try and chase because they form and dissipate within a few minutes.
 
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