AUSTIN (KXAN) — A 12-year "drought" of EF5 tornadoes has ended, after the National Weather Service upgraded a tornado in North Dakota to EF5 status.
The tornado touched down near Enderlin, North Dakota, on June 20 and was initially rated EF3. The NWS office in Grand Forks upgraded the tornado to EF5 Monday, marking the first such tornado in the country since 2013.
Tornadoes are rated using the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which estimates wind speeds based on the amount of damage caused. EF5 tornadoes have estimated wind speeds of 201 mph or greater. The Enderlin tornado had maximum wind speeds "greater than 210 mph," the NWS said.
"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," Melinda Beerends, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, told the Associated Press. "It's hard sometimes to get tornadoes to hit something."
The tornado caused a train to derail south of Enderlin, tipping several grain hopper cars that were fully loaded. An empty tanker car was also thrown about 475.5 feet.
Having first touched down just after 11 p.m., the tornado remained on the ground for 19 minutes and for more than 12 miles. At its maximum width, the tornado was 1.05 miles wide. Three people were killed.
Trees also suffered extensive damage, with "only stubs of large branches or trunks remaining," the NWS said. Investigators also found "complete destruction" at a farmstead, with debris scattered downwind.
The last EF5 recorded in the U.S. was the infamous Moore, Oklahoma, tornado that struck on May 20, 2013, killing 24 people and injuring more than 200. The most recent F5 tornado in Texas — before the switch to the EF scale — was the Jarrell tornado on May 27, 1997.
