EF5 tornado that killed 3 in North Dakota was the nation's first in 12
years
[October 07, 2025]
By SARAH RAZA
A deadly tornado that tore across southeastern North Dakota this summer
has been upgraded to an EF5 with winds topping 200 mph (322 kph), the
strongest classification of tornado and the first confirmed on American
soil in a dozen years, meteorologists said Monday.
The June 20 twister near the town of Enderlin killed three people and at
its largest was 1.05 miles wide (1.7 kilometers), carving a path across
the prairie for just over 12 miles (19 kilometers). Meteorologists from
the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks estimated the
tornado's winds reached 210 mph (338 kph), according to the newly
released analysis.
The 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado in Oklahoma holds the record of the
strongest winds ever recorded in the U.S. at 321 mph (517 kph).
Since the National Weather Service began using Enhanced Fujita scale in
2007, there have been 10 tornadoes categorized as EF5. The 12-year gap
between top-of-the-scale ratings is the longest since the agency started
keeping records in 1950. The earlier tornadoes were assessed using an
older version of the EF scale called the Fujita scale.
“In the last kind of 12 years, there’s been several strong tornadoes
that have come close, but there haven’t been known damage indicators at
that time to support the EF5 rating,” said Melinda Beerends,
meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks.
“It’s hard sometimes to get tornadoes to hit something,” she said.
The morning after the EF5 tornado, meteorologists from the Grand Forks
office headed into the field to assess the damage. They studied how the
twister had uprooted trees, tipped over fully loaded rail cars, toppled
transmission towers and destroyed farmsteads, including one that had its
foundation swept clean with just the basement remaining.
“The city of Enderlin, other than losing power, pretty much went
unscathed,” said Mayor Deon Maasjo. Two men and a woman were killed at
two locations east of the town, which is about 40 miles (65 kilometers)
southwest of Fargo.
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Many trees are stripped and uprooted on June 25, 2025 following the
EF5 tornado in Enderlin, N.D. (North Dakota Governor's Office via
AP)
Determining a tornado's strength usually takes days or weeks, as
meteorologists study the damage to buildings and trees. This case
took much longer because of the unusual damage to rail cars,
including one that was picked up and hurled far from the rest. The
meteorologists worked with engineers and wind damage experts to
conduct additional surveys and forensic analysis to determine the
EF5 rating, up from the initial estimate of EF3.
The tornado was caused by warm, moist air in a place that's ripe for
a thunderstorm, Beerends said. But there was also a high amount of
wind shear, which is a variation of wind speed and direction that
created the conditions for the tornado.
In recent years, tornadoes have been occurring with greater
frequency east of the Mississippi River, said Victor Gensini,
professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University.
“If you look 40 to 50 years ago, the tornadoes that were happening
in places like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are kind of happening
there with less frequency, and we’re seeing more tornadoes in places
like Birmingham, Little Rock and Memphis,” he said.
Though meteorologists aren’t sure what’s causing the trend, the
higher frequency of tornadoes in the Mid-South and Midwest is
notable because it’s closer to population centers, Gensini said, so
there’s a greater chance a tornado may hit something.
The last recorded EF5 tornado was on May 20, 2013, in a town outside
Oklahoma City, killing 24 people and injuring more than 200 others.
That tornado tore through hundreds of homes, a school, hospital and
bowling alley in Moore, where nearly a decade later, droves of
moviegoers lined up to watch the 2024 film “Twisters.”
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