The June 20, 2025 tornado

Rating

EF5

Enhanced Fujita scale

Path length

12.1 mi

Width up to 1,850 yards

Killed

3

Along the whole path

Injured

0

Along the whole path

Date and time

Friday, June 20, 2025

10:04 PM CST

That day

24

tornadoes in the U.S.; more on this date

This large and violent tornado began with minor damage to a few branches about 3 miles SSW Enderlin but within 2.5 miles of the track, the tornado gained intensity and |significantly widened. While south of Highway 46, between 56th and 57th Street SE, the tornado derailed 33 train cars including 19 fully-loaded grain hopper cars and 14 empty tanker cars, mainly tipped from the track. Included in the derailed cars were one filled grain car (286,000 lbs) and four empty tanker cars (72,000 lbs) that were pulled into a field away from the track. One of the 4 tanker cars was tossed 600-1000 ft (183-305 m) from the track and an estimated 475.7 ft (145 m) from the distance of the previous tanker car it was attached to before being pulled off of the track; wheel sets detached near the point from which the cars were derailed from the track. It was in this train derailment location that EF-5 damage intensity was noted with greater than 210 mph winds listed officially for this tornado.||Extensive collaboration with wind damage experts provided forensic analyses for the train damage that occurred with this tornado. These analyses estimate potential wind speeds of approximately 230 mph are needed to completely overturn a fully loaded grain hopper car. Collaboration with the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University���s Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory estimated a potential wind speed of >119 m/s (>266 mph) to loft the empty tanker car 475.7 ft (145 m) using similar calculations performed in Estimating Wind Speeds in Tornadoes Using Debris Trajectories of Large Compact Objects (Miller et al. 2024). The study, published in the Monthly Weather Review, found that large compact objects lofted greater than 50 m indicate EF-5 intensity winds (greater than 200 mph). The Enderlin train cars were nearly 2�� farther than the EF-5 threshold distance and 4�� heavier than the heaviest object modeled in the study. The maximum wind speed also correlates to the timing of the maximum strength observed via the WSR-88D storm-relative velocity data from KMVX.||The tornado continued to widen as it tracked to the north and east. Just to the south of Highway 46, a free standing cell phone tower (FST DOD 2) collapsed, and it impacted several farmsteads with outbuildings destroyed. Extensive vegetation damage occurred with crops destroyed, bark stripped from trees with a ���sandpapering��� effect noted on numerous trees, and many large trees snapped or stubbed. Large tree root balls of 18-24��� diameter trunks were displaced, and in some cases, it was unknown where the uprooted trees originated from. EF-4 damage was noted with the trees. The tornado continued to track northward crossing Highway 46 into southwestern Cass County. The tornado statistics for the Ransom County portion include: a length of 5.4 miles, a maximum width of 1850 yards, a maximum wind of greater than 210 mph (EF-5), and 0 fatalities. Total track length between Ransom and Cass counties was 12.1 miles. Monetary damage estimates were not available.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.

• Ransom CountyND
• Cass CountyND