Monday, July 19, 2004
Tornadoes rip through eastern North Dakota
Associated Press
TOWER CITY, N.D. - A string of tornadoes ripped through eastern North Dakota, destroying farm buildings, injuring cattle and knocking down trees and power lines.
Preliminary estimates indicated 12 tornado touchdowns from about 6:30 p.m. Sunday to about 10 p.m., said Gary Votaw, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks.
Minnkota Power Cooperative estimated $500,000 in damage. Co-op officials said the storm knocked out two major lines, one from Center to Fargo, one from Center to Duluth, Minn.,
Spokesman Mike Nisbet said the lines were built to withstand high winds but, "when you have tornadic activity up there, they bend pretty easy." He said the company hoped to have the problems fixed by Tuesday.
One twister was reported at the Tony Frison home, northeast of Tower City. A three-stall garage was destroyed and vehicles were tossed around. The Frison family was safe in the basement, but firefighters were called to the home to cap a leaking propane tank that was damaged in the high wind.
Authorities said some cattle in Barnes County were missing in the storm, and some of the animals were fatally injured.
"I thought 100 deer rifles went off, with all the noise," said Elmer Holland, who lives in the Tower City area.
"It could have been a lot worse," he said. "It kept me jumpin' for a while."
Up to three inches of rain were reported in the area. The National Weather Service said tree branches were scattered around the town of Tower City.
Fargo Police Sgt. Joel Vettel said he had reports of temporary power outages in parts of Fargo.
Votaw said the storms were the result of a trough moving through the area into southern Minnesota. Monday's forecast called for a chance of thunderstoms with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s.
Tornadoes swirl
Storms cause some wind and hail damage in eastern N.D.
Herald Staff Writers
Warning sirens blared in Grand Forks starting at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday after a tornado warning was issued for Grand Forks County until 7:15 p.m.
The warning was issued after National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm with strong rotation two miles south of Honeyford, N.D., or about 19 miles west of Grand Forks.
It was one of many severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings Sunday night from "supercell" thunderstorms in eastern North Dakota, the weather service said. Some damage from wind and hail was reported.
According to a weather service glossary on their Web site, a supercell thunderstorm is one with a persistent rotating updraft. Supercells are rare but are responsible for a remarkably high percentage of severe weather events - especially tornadoes, extremely large hail and damaging straight-line winds.
GF County storms
The storm in Grand Forks County moved through the area of Arvilla, Mekinock, Grand Forks Air Force Base and Emerado, N.D.
Golfball-size hail was reported five miles east of Emerado at 6:49 p.m. Hail 0.88 of an inch in diameter fell three miles east of Honeyford at 6:20 p.m. and near Hatton, N.D., at 7:45 p.m. Hail 1.75 inches in diameter was reported near Emerado at 6:48 p.m. One-inch hail was reported near Thompson, N.D., at 7:22 p.m.
The sirens, which started about 6:30 p.m. in Grand Forks, drowned out the Dick King Classic Swing Band's performance Sunday night in Town Square downtown. Some people left the concert early.
Rotation, tornadoes
Another tornado warning was posted for northeastern Steele County. Another severe thunderstorm with strong rotation was detected on radar six miles southwest of Northwood, N.D.
A tornado warning was issued for Traill County, N.D., until 8:15 p.m., after a tornado was spotted on the ground 10 miles northwest of Portland, N.D. The storm was expected to affect the Portland and Mayville, N.D., areas.
In Mayville, a fallen electric line cut power to about 12 homes. Witnesses in Hatton said about four tornadoes were spotted in the area. Witnesses said the funnel clouds flattened wheat fields, but no other damage was reported.
Tornadoes also were reported by spotters near Emerado, Golden Lake and Portland.
Don Huso, deputy sheriff in Steele County, said he got up close with a tornado southwest of Hatton. Huso said he got within a quarter-mile of the pure white tornado, which sat unmoving in the middle of a field. When it moved, he said, it picked up dirt and turned black. Though the tornado caused significant damage to the field, it didn't harm any structures or people, he said.
"It sat there stationary, like it was waiting for me," Huso said. "It was a really neat sight, if you want to call a tornado neat."
Eyewitness stories
Grand Forks County sheriff's deputy Mike Lee was chasing around, watching storm clouds and tornadoes Sunday evening as part of his public safety job.
He became a victim himself of the storms he was chasing.
"The wind and hail kind of did a number on us," Lee said of his rural home about 10 miles northeast of Northwood.
"It broke the outside mirror and put some dents in a pickup truck and broke some storm windows," he said. His son, Zach, put a few of the large hailstones in the freezer for posterity.
"They were small-baseball-sized, or large-golf-ball-sized," Lee said.
He also watched a tornado touch down west of Hatton and move southeast toward Portland. It was one of several reported in the area west of Hatton and Northwood.
At Doug Moore's home 10 miles south of Emerado along County Road 3, the damage was as bad as anywhere reported.
"I couldn't see my front yard, it was so dark," Moore said of the storm that hit at about 7 p.m., still a daylight hour. "I've got three trees on my granary, lot of trees down in the woods. Three-fourths of my windows are broken. My whole yard was white (with hailstones), from golf-ball to baseball-sized."
The good news: "I got the cars in the barn in time."
He and his three children spent a rather frightening 10 minutes in the basement listening to the storm blow over, Moore said. He doesn't know if it was a straight wind or tornado that did the damage, but it hit a couple of neighbors, too.
Two miles away, Ila Dahlen's farm home was hit by hail the size of tennis balls, she said, which broke house windows and knocked over several trees. Her son, a farmer, said some crop fields were "just shredded," from the hail, Dahlen said.
Near Washington Lutheran Church, six miles east of Northwood, downed trees were tangled in power lines, Lee said.
Storm notes
Grand Forks Emergency Manager Jim Campbell reported for duty to the emergency operations center in the police station and monitored the reports of six members of the Grand Forks Amateur (Ham) Radio Club who covered the county and sent in reports of storm activity.
As always, Selke Hall at UND and Altru Hospital are open as storm shelters - no pets allowed, Campbell emphasized - but he wasn't aware of any citizens using the shelters Sunday.
In Emerado, residents of a nearby trailer court took shelter in the Superpumper service station. Some stood under the canopies to watch the storms.
On Highway 15 nine miles west of Thompson, Beth Ness said several motorists pulled into her farmyard because hail cut visibility.
Other storms
A severe thunderstorm warning also was posted for western Polk County, Minn., at 7:07 p.m. The storm was expected to move through Tabor, Mallory, Key West, Sherack, Angus and Euclid, Minn.
About 8:15 p.m., the severe storms had moved out of Grand Forks and Traill counties, and farther south and east, the weather service said.
Most of eastern North Dakota and northwestern and west-central Minnesota were under a tornado watch from 6 p.m. to midnight. A watch means tornadoes are possible. A warning means a tornado has been sighted.
To the south and west, tornado warnings also were issued for Barnes, Cass, LaMoure, Logan and McIntosh counties of North Dakota.
In Cass County, damage was reported from winds or a tornado in Tower City, N.D. A roof was ripped off a house, and winds bent trees to the ground. Broken 2-inch branches were scattered around town.
Storms dumped 2 to 3 inches of rain in around Absaraka, Ayr, Buffalo and Erie, N.D. Ditches were full and farm fields flooded, the weather service said. A flash flood warning was issued for western Cass County later Sunday night.
Wed, Jul. 21, 2004
N.D. TORNADOES: Second NWS team surveys damage
Inspectors want to know if Barnes County twister was an F4
Associated Press
GRAND FORKS - The National Weather Service sent a second team of observers to Barnes County on Tuesday to determine whether a tornado that destroyed a farm there should be declared an F4, the second most severe tornado rating given.
A F4 tornado would have winds of up to 260 mph, the weather service said.
The tornado struck the farm of Dana Noot and his family Sunday night, leaving it in ruins. Noot and his family, who were baling hay nearby, were not hurt.
Barnes County Emergency Manager Norma Duppler said F4 tornadoes are only 1 percent of all tornadoes generated. She said the last one recorded in North Dakota was in 1999.
Duppler said the Red Cross, friends and relatives are helping the Noot family, and a relief fund has been set up through the Wells Fargo bank.
"It was a two-generation farm and a lifetime of work. It's frustrating there isn't more we can do," she said. "There's total devastation and they're underinsured."
An F1 in Cass
The weather service said a tornado that hit Sunday night in the Tower City area, in western Cass County, was an F1, packing winds of up to 112 mph.
One Minnkota power line was heavily damaged and three Minnkota towers were bent or toppled, the weather service said.
Residents of northeastern North Dakota also were cleaning up after tornadoes Sunday night.
Douglas Dahlen estimated that he had wind and hail damage on about 1,500 acres south of Emerado. He said a 60-acre sunflower field was "totally shredded."
Hail dented vehicles and left holes in the lawn, said his mother, Ila Dahlen. She saved two ice cream buckets full of hailstones in the freezer.
The weather service said the tornado that hit the Dahlen farm was an F1. Ila Dahlen said it came through in about 10 minutes.
A tornado also whipped through Lillian Enger's farm yard in Steele County, blowing the roof off a 56-year-old wooden barn and pulling an ancient box elder tree out by its roots.
The trees were within a few feet of the house, which escaped unscathed.
"We feel we are pretty lucky here," Enger said. "We were thinking about shingling the barn, but I guess we won't have to, now."
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS
1130 AM CDT TUE JUL 20 2004
...TORNADO DAMAGE FROM SUNDAY EVENING'S TORNADO NORTH OF TOWER CITY NORTH DAKOTA AND IN SOUTHWEST BARNES COUNTY...
GRAND FORKS NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PERSONNEL INVESTIGATED TORNADO DAMAGE IN THE TOWER CITY AREA OF WEST CASS COUNTY AND IN THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF BARNES COUNTY.
THE CASS COUNTY TORNADO PRODUCED A DAMAGE PATH APPROXIMATELY 4 MILES IN LENGTH. THE FIRST APPARENT DAMAGE NOTED WAS 5 MILES NORTH AND 3 MILES EAST OF TOWER CITY.
DAMAGE WAS APPARENT TO A SHELTERBELT IN THE CORNELL TOWNSHIP BETWEEN 134TH AND 136TH AVENUE. AN EAST WEST ORIENTED POWER LINE OPERATED BY MINNKOTA POWER SUFFERED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE AS 1 TOWER WAS SEVERELY DAMAGED AND 3 OTHER TOWERS BENT OR TOPPLED.
THE TORNADO THEN CONTINUED TO SKIP TO THE SOUTHWEST... STRIKING A FARMSTEAD APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES NORTH AND 1 MILE EAST OF TOWER CITY. SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE OCCURRED TO THE FARMSTEAD PROPERTY WITH TWO GARAGES DEMOLISHED AND SEVERAL OUT BUILDINGS DAMAGED.
THE TORNADO CONTINUED SOUTH FOR APPROXIMATELY 2 MILES CREATING A DAMAGE PATH IN ANOTHER SHELTER BELT 1 MILE EAST OF TOWER CITY. THE PATH WAS LOST AT THAT POINT.
BASED ON THE DAMAGE TO THE FARMSTEAD...SHELTER BELTS AND TOWERS... THE WEST CASS COUNTY TORNADO OF SUNDAY EVENING JULY 18 HAS BEEN DEEMED A STRONG F1. BASED ON THE FUJITA SCALE...AN F1 TORNADO IS ONE WHICH HAS WIND SPEEDS UP TO 112 MPH.
LARGE HAIL ACCOMPANIED THE STORM AS WELL, AND A FEW HOMES HAD WINDOWS KNOCKED OUT AND SIDING DAMAGED. A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE SOUTHWEST BARNES COUNTY TORNADO WAS ACCOMPLISHED LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON. BASED ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC AND VIDEO DATA...AS WELL AS EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS AND VISUAL INSPECTION OF THE DATA...THAT TORNADO HAS BEEN INITIALLY RATED AS A STRONG F3 TO F4 TORNADO. STORMS OF THIS INTENSITY ENCOMPASS WIND SPEEDS RANGING FROM 158 MPH TO 260 MPH. A SECOND TEAM IS ON SITE THIS TUESDAY MORNING VERIFYING THE DATA. A FINAL DETERMINATION OF THE BARNES COUNTY STORMS WILL BE MADE EITHER LATER TODAY OR WEDNESDAY.
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA/GRAND FORKS
635 PM CDT TUE JUL 20 2004
...DAMAGE FROM SUNDAY EVENING'S TORNADO IN SOUTHWEST BARNES COUNTY OFFICIALLY RATED FUJITA SCALE 4...
GRAND FORKS NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PERSONNEL FINALIZED THE INVESTIGATION OF TORNADO DAMAGE IN MEADOW LAKE AND GREENLAND TOWNSHIPS OF SOUTHWEST BARNES COUNTY NORTH DAKOTA.
THE TORNADO DAMAGE IS APPROXIMATELY 22 MILES SOUTHWEST OF VALLEY CITY. DAMAGE WAS QUITE SEVERE AND RATED AT FUJITA SCALE 4 OR F4. F4 MEANS THE TORNADO LIKELY PRODUCED WINDS AS STRONG AS 260 MPH.
THE TORNADO CUT A PATH TO THE SOUTH SOUTHEAST. IT WAS 6 MILES LONG AND ONE QUARTER MILE WIDE FROM NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF 46TH STREET SOUTHEAST AND 97TH AVENUE SOUTHEAST TO ABOUT 1/2 MILE SOUTHEAST OF 51ST STREET SOUTHEAST AND 98TH AVENUE SOUTHEAST.
THE DAMAGE WAS ESPECIALLY SEVERE AT A FARM LOCATED AT 51ST STREET SOUTHEAST AND 98TH AVENUE SOUTHEAST. ALL BUILDINGS, VEHICLES AND POSSESSIONS AT THE FARM APPEARED TO BE A TOTAL LOSS. THE HOME WAS LEVELED AND SWEPT AWAY. VEHICLES WERE THROWN THROUGH THE AIR FOR SOME DISTANCE, TWISTED, AND WRAPPED AROUND TREES. METAL TRUSSES FROM OUTBUILDINGS WERE WRAPPED AROUND MACHINERY. GRAIN BINS WERE TORN APART AND PIECES LODGED AND TWISTED IN TREES.
THIS WAS A POWERFUL AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TORNADO.
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Last update to this page: August 9, 2004