Tag: North Dakota

North Dakota Sees First Significant Tornado Day this Year

Matthieu Leave a comment

Last Saturday, on June 27th, North Dakota saw its first tornado outbreak of the year where 19 twisters touched down across the state.

[map autofit=”1″ disable_scrollwheel=”1″] [pin tooltip=”Roseisle”]Roseisle, Manitoba[/pin] [pin tooltip=”Pisek”]Pisek, North Dakota[/pin] [pin tooltip=”EF-2 occurred just west of here”]Holmes, North Dakota[/pin] [/map]

A surface trough moving across the region associated with an upper level wave was the focus for severe weather across the region last Saturday. Plenty of instability was in place – MLCAPEs in the order of over 2000J/kg and sufficient shear (around 40 knots) was enough to support supercells in the region under the northwest flow. The first supercell in the region fired on the Manitoba side of the border and brought very large hail the size of tennis balls and strong winds to Roseisle and surrounding communities, such as Miami, MB. As the supercell drifted towards the south southeast it crossed the border into North Dakota near Walhalla, and held together quite well. A damage survey conducted by NWS Grand Forks it was found that several weak tornadoes were spawned out this supercell before it encountered a cluster of thunderstorms and weakened. Later on in the day several other tornadic supercells fired along the surface trough to the south of the initial supercell that was in northern North Dakota and produced more tornadoes.

After conducting a damage survey of the area, NWS Grand Forks concluded that 19 tornadoes touched down on June 27th, 2015. (Source: NWS Grand Forks)
After conducting a damage survey of the area, NWS Grand Forks concluded that 19 tornadoes touched down on June 27th, 2015. (Source: NWS Grand Forks)

After it was all said and done, it was concluded that the strongest tornado of all, a cone tornado, was one that touched down near Grand Forks and was of EF-2 strength (winds between 177km/h and 217km/h). The other tornadoes reported were mostly of rope type and weaker; of EF-0 to EF-1 strength. Thankfully the NWS Grand Forks was quick on the warnings and did a good job alerting the public of a nearby tornado – no injuries or deaths were reported with any of the 19 tornadoes.

One of the rope tornadoes in ND observed near Pisek. (Source: Matt D)
One of the rope tornadoes in ND observed near Pisek. (Source: Matt D)

In other weather news this week, the west Pacific has been quite active typhoon-wise as three tropical storms are currently active, and of those one is expected to strengthen significantly by the beginning of next week, possibly to super typhoon status.

Elsewhere in Weather News: October 6th, 2012

Matthieu Leave a comment

Record Early Snowstorm Hits Northern States

The same powerful low pressure system that brought the first significant snowfall of the season to Southern Manitoba dropped copious amounts of snow south of the border. A surface low pressure system that was moving in a north-easterly fashion combined with a deepening upper low through the area resulted in a record-breaking early winter storm this past week in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Visible satellite

Image of visible satellite taken on Friday afternoon. Large upper low is located in NW Ontario with jet stream in pink and cyan circled area the hardest hit areas. (Image source: COD)

Impressive snowfall totals were recorded in Northern Minnesota and North Dakota in the wake of the storm. Numerous cars were spotted in the ditches and tractor-trailers jackknifed in Northern Minnesota on Friday, due to treacherous road conditions. Around 3,000 people were out of power in the two states on Friday afternoon in the hardest hit areas. Woodridge, MB to Thief River Falls, MN received the heaviest bands of snow. Below lists some of the impressive amounts of snow accumulation recorded in Minnesota and North Dakota, as per reported by the National Weather Service:

  • Badger, MN (30 minutes south of Piney, MB): 30-36cm
  • Roseau, MN: 18cm
  • Grand Forks, ND: 9cm – A record for largest amount of snow to fall this early in the year (old record: 5cm)
  • International Falls, MN: 4cm – Also a record for the largest amount of snow to fall this early in the year (old record: 1.5cm)

(The remainder of the reports as of 3pm, Friday afternoon can be seen at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=fgf&storyid=87914&source=0)

This snowfall brings to a close (for now) the extreme fire danger in North Dakota and Minnesota whose conditions were similar to Southern Manitoba – extremely dry and windy. The Karlstad fire in Minnesota on October 3rd was fanned by severe 65km/h winds and drought conditions. In total, 31 buildings were destroyed; thankfully, no one was hurt.

Damage

Picture of the damage in Karlstad. (Source: MPL/Nathaniel Minor)

As the low pressure system continues to move further north-east, areas in Northern Ontario such as Timmins and Geraldton will experience their first snowfall of the year.