A deadly tornado in northwestern Minnesota Wednesday evening turned out to be one of the strongest anywhere in the U.S. so far in 2020.
The tornado which carved through parts of Grand and Otter Tail counties in northwestern Minnesota was rated EF4, with estimated peak winds of 170 mph, according to a storm survey released Friday morning by the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
A lone supercell first spawned this tornado west of Ashby, about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis, just after 5 p.m. Wednesday. It then intensified quickly into a much stronger tornado as it tracked slowly into Otter Tail County before finally dissipating 31 minutes later east of the town of Dalton.
The heaviest damage along the tornado's 9-mile path occurred between the towns of Dalton and Ashby.
"A well-built two-story house was completely swept from its foundation and decimated in a widespread and distant debris field," the NWS survey found.
Two people taking shelter in the basement of this home were injured, as a vehicle and other debris were thrown into the exposed basement, the NWS said.
One person was killed and another injured when a machine shop at another farm was swept away and destroyed, according to the Otter Tail County Sheriff.
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NWS meteorologists on the damage survey also found several areas where ground cover was scoured out by a combination of the tornado's high winds and embedded debris raking over the ground. This is most often seen in the strongest tornadoes.
This was only the nation's sixth EF4 tornado in 2020, and first since April.
Locations of EF4 tornadoes in the U.S. in 2020, as of July 10, 2020.It was the first EF4 tornado in Minnesota in almost 10 years, since Aug. 7, 2010. An outbreak earlier that summer spawned another EF4 tornado in Otter Tail County.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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