Enderlin Tornado Upgraded to EF5; Three Dead

The National Weather Service on Oct. 6 upgraded the June 20 Enderlin, North Dakota tornado to EF5, estimating peak winds above 210 mph. The nighttime, more-than-mile-wide twister carved a roughly 12-mile path in about 19 minutes and killed three people — Michael Dehn, Katherine Pfaff-Dehn and Marcario Lucio. The reclassification followed months-long forensic damage surveys by NWS Grand Forks and outside experts, including the Northern Tornadoes Project, which documented uprooted and debarked trees, a farmstead swept from its foundation, toppled transmission towers, and derailed and tipped fully loaded grain hopper cars; an empty tanker car was lofted roughly 475 feet. Radar velocity data and engineering simulations supported the conclusion that winds exceeded 210 mph. The tornado was part of a larger June 20 outbreak across North Dakota and Minnesota; EF5 ratings are rare, and this is the first U.S. EF5 in about 12 years.