First EF5 tornado to strike the US in over a decade just confirmed by experts
By CNN Meteorologist Mary Gilbert, CNN
(CNN) — A rare, monstrous EF5 tornado that struck the United States more than three months ago was the first of its kind in more than a decade, experts announced Monday.
A tornado that roared through part of eastern North Dakota in June and killed three people was upgraded Monday to an EF5 with winds greater than 210 mph, the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, confirmed.
EF5 tornadoes pack winds of at least 201 mph and are the highest level of the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the scale used to determine tornado strength. Tornadoes this strong are rare. Only 60 tornadoes of EF5 strength – including this one – have been recorded since 1950, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.
The tornado first hit near Enderlin, North Dakota – located about 40 miles southwest of Fargo – and tracked north for nearly 20 minutes and about 12 miles before ending near Alice.
Tornadoes are rated after they’ve occurred based on the degree of damage they cause. The Enderlin tornado was originally rated an EF3 with winds of 160 mph.
Additional investigation by weather service meteorologists in consultation with other scientists led to the upgrade, mainly based on the damage the tornado did to a freight train.
The violent tornado tossed one empty train car nearly 500 feet off the track and knocked over several fully loaded grain hopper cars, according to the report. Its raging winds also ripped large trees down to stubs and inflicted “complete destruction” on one farmstead.
The last EF5 tornado in the US roared through Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013. Twenty-four people were killed and more than 200 were injured after the tornado turned the city to rubble in a matter of moments.
Despite the rarity of such a monster, the fact that there hadn’t been an EF5 tornado in more than a decade didn’t sit right with some scientists.
A study released in August dove into this so-called EF5 tornado “drought” and posited the lack of these high-end ratings had more to do with a potentially imbalanced damage rating scale than the power of the twisters themselves.
Tornadoes are assigned ratings based on the type of damage that they do and that damage level is tied to a wind speed. A tornado that rips apart a single family home down to its foundation is given winds of 200 mph, making it an EF4. However, before the scale was changed in 2007, that type of damage was considered the most extreme level.
The August study argued that adjusting the definition of an EF5 tornado down slightly to 190 mph would result in an EF5 frequency that’s more consistent with decades past.
That area of discussion will continue for years to come, but one thing is certain: The EF5 counter has reset and the clock is ticking again.
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CNN Meteorologist Chris Dolce contributed to this report.
