After extensive research and surveys the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota upgraded a tornado from earlier in the year to EF-5.
On June 20 of this year a tornado struck the town of Enderlin, ND. Initially, the tornado was given a rating of EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Since then, the NWS worked with many people and researchers and have now upgraded it to an EF-5. This makes it the first confirmed EF-5 since 2013, and only the 10th EF-5 since 2007 when the Enhanced Fujita Scale was initiated. This was the longest span with no EF-5s on record.
The NWS estimates the maximum wind speed of the storm as greater than 210MPH, an amazing feat but that doesn’t crack the top 10 of strongest tornadoes on record. In fact, these winds are over 100MPH lower than the maximum confirmed winds of 321MPH from the May 1999 Moore, OK tornado.
The primary reason for the upgrade came from damage to numerous train cars just south of Enderlin. According to the NWS, the tornado tossed an empty tanker car 475.7ft, over a football field. For reference, an empty tanker car weighs around 65,000-75,000 pounds depending on the exact model. The tornado also tipped several fully loaded grain hopper cars (over 200,000lbs each!). The maximum winds were also indicated on radar at the KMVX site.
The National Weather Service also noted extensive tree damage through the nearby river valley with countless trees reduced to stubs and debarking/sandpapering effect prevalent.
Nearby, a farmstead was swept clean although the construction of the home and other buildings limited ratings. This is the chief issue with rating tornadoes: they have to hit something. Unfortunately, we are very limited in our ability to determine just how strong a tornado is without seeing damage. There have no doubt been other EF-5s since 2013, they just managed to not hit anything strong enough to justify the rating. For many less well constructed homes, the damage from an EF-3/EF-4 and an EF-5 will be effectively the same. Things like anchor bolts can often be the determining factor in a tornado’s rating. It is entirely possible the winds inside this tornado were higher than 210MPH, but we’ll never know for sure.
Unfortunately, the storm did result in 3 fatalities east of Enderlin where 2 men and one woman were killed.
To see more photos of the damage from the NWS, you can find the entire report here: https://www.weather.gov/media/fgf/Enderlin.pdf
