Twisters: Tornadic storms impact rural North Dakota

Most of eastern North Dakota was under a tornado watch for the evening of June 20, 2025. By late afternoon, two supercells developed west of Bismarck, spawning a tornado near New Salem. The storm intensified as it moved eastward, wreaking havoc with Derecho winds clocked up to 99 miles per hour, according to the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) stations. The National Weather Service confirmed 13 tornadoes in the state, including an EF-3 rated tornado near Enderlin that claimed three lives. A fourth death was later confirmed in Stuttsman County.

On June 21, North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong declared a statewide disaster and activated the State Emergency Operations Plan.

“Our hearts and sympathies go out to the family and friends of the three North Dakotans who tragically lost their lives in Friday’s tornado, and to the close-knit community in Enderlin, which suffered widespread damage,” Armstrong said in a press release. “We thank our dedicated first responders and community leaders, including our many volunteer first responders, for their swift action to keep residents safe and help them recover. State teams, including the 24-hour Watch Center and State Radio, have been tracking through the night and coordinating with local emergency managers, and we stand ready to support as requests arrive. North Dakotans are resilient, and we will recover from this as we always do – by working together and taking care of each other.”

---

---

Weather Disasters

North Dakota State University climatologist Daryl Ritchison explained that it is difficult to compare today’s reported tornado sightings with past numbers.

---

---

“We had two very big, strong supercell thunderstorms that produced tornadoes,” he said. “Tornadoes regenerate and reform. It makes the news but we can’t really equate it historically because of that recycling.”

Today, more tornadoes are reported than in the past, Ritchison said, because storm chasers are out.

“Even 20 years ago, nobody was chasing storms: this storm we had 100 or 150 people out there, maybe more. We have probably had days where we had more supercells in the state, and probably had far bigger storms, but we weren’t counting numbers of tornadoes.

Ritchison said that in the past, people were unlikely to report a small tornado.

“When I talk with old timers and ask, ‘Did you report tornadoes back in the day?’ They would tell me, ‘If I saw a big one, but the little ones I never did.’ There was no 911; it was just different,” he said.

Most of the damage was done by the straight line winds, Ritchison said.

“The last time we had a similar scenario was the July 4, 1999 storm that started in North Dakota and moved into Minnesota. Outside of the Enderlin area, the tornado damage area is relatively small, but the Derecho damage is huge, county-wide in some places.”

Hundreds of train cars were tipped over by the storm, buildings were damaged and destroyed, and trees were broken and uprooted across several counties. Electrical poles were snapped, leaving many without power for days. High voltage transmission towers and at least one wind turbine were also destroyed, and the Page, North Dakota elevator was damaged.

One NDAWN station clocked winds at 99 miles per hour. Most weather stations are set at a height of 10 meters, Ritchison explained, but NDAWN equipment is set at a height of three meters to acquire readings more relevant to ag producers.

“We have an equation to estimate what 99 mile per hour wind at three meters would be at 10 meters,” he said. “No one technically measured it officially but we probably had 110-120 mile per hour wind gusts if we were measuring at that height.”

While it is far too early to have accurate tallies of infrastructure damage, Ritchison said that grain storage took the hardest hit.

“The big loss is grain bins,” he said. “It is too high to estimate, but tens of thousands of bushels are gone. What are people going to do this fall for harvest space?”

The June 20, 2025 storm will hold a place in North Dakota weather history, along with a storm that occurred 68 years prior. The June 20, 1957 storm produced the deadliest tornado on record in the state, and claimed the lives of 10 people.

Ted Fujita, after whom the F and EF tornado ratings are named, visited Fargo after the 1957 storm and used observations from that tornado and others to create the “Fujita Scale” along with storm terminology still used today.

“The Fargo tornado and the Waco, Texas tornado were the two principle tornadoes used to create the Fujita Scale,” Ritchison said. “Fujita did a very detailed analysis of the damage from the Fargo tornado. It hit a big area and the damage was filmed and photographed. He documented that one cell went 20 miles and the same cell recycled five times. Terms like ‘wall cloud’ came from the paper he published. That’s why the Fargo tornado is historically significant.”

Changes were made to the Fujita Scale in 2007; now tornadoes are rated on an “Enhanced Fujita” or EF Scale rating.

Ritchison likes to remind people that these scales are damage scales, not wind speed scales, nor do they indicate the size of a tornado.

“Big tornadoes are not rated by size, they are rated by damage,” he said. “The Enderlin tornado is rated as an EF 3+. To rate as an EF 4, a tornado has to hit a certain kind of structure. It has to hit something like a brick building to show that kind of damage.”

The last North Dakota tornado to claim three or more lives occurred nearly fifty years ago, on July 4, 1978, killing five people in Elgin. Four single-fatality tornadoes have occurred since the 1978 storm: an F2 in Renville County in 1997, an EF4 in Northwood in 2007, an EF3 in Ward County in 2010 and an EF2 in Watford City in 2018.

Cass County

Cass County Extension agent Lilly Bina said she has a pit in her stomach as she surveys damages to farms and ranches in her area.

“It’s almost sickening to drive out there,” she said. “Right now everything is just a mess. I drove by one place where the barns are just gone, it’s not fun. You can see exactly where the tornado went and where the barn used to be, then the shelterbelt and the barn is in the shelterbelt in pieces.”

It is tough for producers in a wide area, Bina said.

“We really just don’t have an accurate idea of how bad it is,” she said. “There were some livestock lost and I know that there were probably more injuries than deaths. Lots of farmers are having to make hard calls on that.”

She’s grateful the storm didn’t pass through any towns, but heartbroken for the families who have lost significant infrastructure and more.

“There are no words really,” she said. “Everywhere you go you see a lot of grain bins got taken out. The elevator in Page got demolished, lots of trees are down.”

North Dakota State University Extension is partnering with state agencies to assess agricultural impacts related to these storms. The information will be provided to state partners to support a federal disaster declaration and activate funds to aid in recovery efforts.

“It is completely anonymous,” Bina said. “We are encouraging anyone who had any damage at all to fill out the survey.

If you were affected by the storms please fill out the Storm Damage Assessment:  https://ndstate.co1.qualtrics.com/…/SV_0c6apJkX72TAGY6

•Please complete one assessment per individual/operation.

• No identifying information will be collected or shared.

• Data will be aggregated and reported at the county level.

June 19 Stark County

Unstable weather produced storms from North Dakota to Saskatchewan on June 19, including a tornadic storm that passed through Stark County. This system also produced damaging hail up to baseball size.

Ben Kuhn farms and ranches with family south of Dickinson.

“We had hail damage and lost crops,” he said. “Our property damage is somewhat minimal, houses lost siding, windshields were broken. Some of our neighbors had their roofs ripped off.”

Things could have been worse, Kuhn said, particularly in comparison with the storms that followed on June 20 which took human lives.

“It was interesting,” he said. “The storm happened within about 10 minutes. I was out spraying and it was a sunny, humid day. I could see the cloud building to the northwest and all of a sudden it started getting bigger and started spinning.”

Kuhn was about four miles away from home when he saw what looked like a tornado touch down.

“At this point, I got back to my family and got my wife and kids into the basement,” he said. “Of course I had to go back up and watch.”

Hail fell, but no rain.

“It was mostly golf ball size, some was baseball size. All of the pickups that were outside had their windshields shattered, my parents siding has holes in it and will need to be replaced along with the shingles, some windows are broken on houses,” Kuhn said.

There wasn’t much wind with the hail, which probably helped.

“The hailstones were falling almost straight down,” Kuhn said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It sounded like bowling balls hitting the roof.”

Kuhn said the family’s cattle seem to be alright, which surprised him considering how big some of the hailstones were. Crop damage in the area was severe but spotty.

“The grass seemed to take it much better, probably because there was less wind,” he said. “The corn was hit pretty hard, but it is young enough that it is looking a little better every day. The storm set it back, but didn’t kill it.”

Wheat took the hardest hit.

“We lost around 1000 acres of wheat,” Kuhn said. “Over half of my acres had some hail damage, but most was not as significant as the wheat fields close to the farm.”

Hail damage was reported from north of Belfield to south of Carson on June 19. An area west and south of Dickinson took the hardest hit. The damage was patchy, but took out “tens of thousands of acres,” Kuhn guesses. “A few square miles here and there were completely hailed out, and half a mile away things are fine,” he said.

“I don’t even want to complain,” he said. “It could have been so much worse. Some of our neighbors who were close to the tornado had roofs ripped off and buildings destroyed. It was bad but it could have been worse. We were lucky we were all safe.”

Ransom County

Ransom County extension agent Brian Zimprich said it is far too early to have any numbers as far as livestock losses, livestock injuries and damage assessments from the June 20 storm.

“It is still being determined what has all been lost and what is still being accounted for at this point,” he said. “I know that we’ve had reports of livestock loss and livestock injuries. Damage ranges from anything from a few trees down to buildings completely gone and leveled and no longer in place.”

Downed power lines left many people in the Enderlin area and surrounding counties without electricity for days.

“That’s been a mess around here,” Zimprich said. “They have been working hard to get everyone restored.”

As of June 24, Zimprich said he had heard it might be up to another week before everyone’s power was restored.

Zimprich had not heard any reports of producers struggling to get water for livestock with the power outages.

“Most pastures have some type of dugout for the most part, so they do have access to natural water,” he said.

There are crop losses in a wide area in multiple counties.

“Some producers are going to either have to look at replanting or put in a short season type crop to finish out the growing season,” Zimprich said.

But it is going to take time to figure out just how bad the damage is.

“There are a lot of heavily damaged structures, from homes to shops to barns to calving sheds to grain bins. There is quite a bit of infrastructure loss and quite a bit of crop loss. It is going to take a while to put together the whole scope of what took place,” Zimprich said. “We are encouraging producers to fill out a storm assessment survey through NDSU extension to help get some idea of the numbers.”

Picking up the Pieces

“I’m a born and raised farm girl,” said Cindy Hanson, who lives near Enderlin and works as an ag loan officer with Ag Country, Farm Credit Services. “It was crazy. You see these things on TV or in the movies, but until you see it in real life, it is unbelievable.”

The damage from the two tornadoes that touched down near Enderlin, as well as from the Derecho winds and other tornadoes in the state on June 20 are “a pretty tough blow” for farmers and ranchers, Hanson said.

“There is quite a bit of livestock loss in this area. My nephew operates a small feedlot right along Highway 46, and he lost quite a bit of livestock. Another farmstead just down the road lost cattle. There are still cattle missing and who knows where they will end up or where they are laying,” she said.

Some animals had to be euthanized because they were severely wounded.

“It’s a tornado,” Hanson said. “It doesn’t actually kill them all. It injures them and then ranchers have to deal with the aftermath. It’s not pretty.”

The storm hit late Friday night. Sunday morning, Hanson drove past her nephew’s place on the way to church.

“I live and breathe ag,” she said. “One of the toughest things for me was when I saw the pen of orphan calves left with no cows. That just really hit me hard.”

To Hanson’s knowledge, the town of Enderlin is fine. The rural areas are not.

“Two tornadoes crossed paths and the damage is terrible,” she said. “Stories just keep coming in as far as how horrific the damage is. The amount of trees down and buildings damaged is huge. There is tin everywhere, from shops, grain bins, calving barns that are just destroyed. They’re gone.”

Hanson lives just a mile from the family farm where she was born and raised.

“I came back to work and live in my community,” she said. “The farmers and ranchers in my area, some of whom are my customers, are my family and friends also.”

Hanson traveled to Fargo Sunday night.

“On the way, as I was seeing the fields full of debris and trees, and thinking about how the crops are growing, I had a wild hair. You’re not going to see that stuff in a week the way the corn is shooting up. How are they going to harvest this fall with all the metal and trees spread across the fields?”

Hanson reached out to the Enderlin FFA advisor with the idea to get a bunch of volunteers together to walk fields and pick up debris. She also discussed the plan with her boss at Ag Country. It all came together quickly.

“On Tuesday, we had 175 volunteers plus farmers show up,” she said. “We fed 210 people and we got at least 15 farmers’ fields done. It was just unbelievable the amount of work we accomplished. We had 43 FFA members show up from Enderlin, Kindred, Lisbon and Central Cass chapters, 22 of my coworkers from Ag Country came, we had representatives from Titan, RDO and more; they came from everywhere with one day’s notice.”

Other farmers also showed up to donate their time and bring equipment, even though many had fields of their own to clean up.

“I did limit it to one field per farmer,” Hanson said. “Some guys were really hit bad and had a lot of fields to clean up. The Enderlin FFA is coordinating another clean up day next week. The amount of work that was done is so humbling.”

Hanson was not home when the tornado hit, but her husband and others who went through it described the roar and suction of the tornado as it passed. One of the fatalities was their closest neighbor.

“It hit our farmstead and we lost a cattle shed and trees,” she said. “I was in Minnesota. At 11:26 I got a text from a friend asking, ‘Are you in your basement?’ I replied ‘No’ and he said ‘Get there now, it’s right over your house.’ It was circling right over us and took off the end of our farm site.”

Hanson is thankful that there were not more fatalities with the tornadoes striking at night.

“It’s a lesson to all of us,” she said. “We think it’s never going to happen to us, but weather warnings are there for a reason. I don’t think anyone will take it for granted.”

Within the Enderlin community and beyond, neighbors have been rallying to support each other.

“Hopefully we can all help each other out,” Hanson said. “A storm like this doesn’t happen in North Dakota very often. Its economic impact will be huge.”

Lynn Haugen

Lynn and Dawn Haugen farm with their family near Hannaford, North Dakota, approximately 30 miles north of Valley City. The storm hit their farm around 12:30 a.m. July 21.

“We’ve had storms before, but nothing like this,” Haugen said. “This was a once in a lifetime storm; I hope I never see another one like this.”

The storm that hit Haugens hammered a path through the Spiritwood, Hannaford, Dazey, Rogers, Page and Luverne areas.

“On our family farm we lost the barn, the machine shed, and five or six grain bins,” Haugen said. “We’re just waiting to see what kind of damage is done that we can’t see yet.”

Haugen said his cattle came through the storm well.

“They must have hunkered down,” he said.

Some empty creep feeders didn’t move, while heavier things are gone.

“It is crazy what stays and what you lose,” Haugen said.

Haugens found a bright spot when the storm passed and they were able to look around.

“It was so dark, and when we were finally able to see we could tell that the barn was gone,” Haugen said. “Our youngest son just graduated from high school, and his show steer and heifer calves were in the barn when it went down. They managed to find a corner and they were ok. We were surprised to find them alright.”

Irrigation pivots in the area are tipped over or mangled, and some people lost shingles, their roof, or their whole house. Grain storage and drying systems are wrecked.

“Last year we had problems during harvest because elevators couldn’t get trains and their piles were full. Farmers were forced to pile their own corn at home, that was better than leaving it in the field. I don’t know what people will do this year,” Haugen said.

Power at Haugens’ farm was out for a day and a half.

“Along Highway 1 a lot of power poles were laying on the ground,” he said.

Haugen heard some stories about people who were in campers when the storm hit.

“They went for a good ride,” he said. “The loss of life was tragic. Thankfully it was not worse. There are lots of trees on vehicles, but all of that is replaceable.”

Disaster Response

North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong visited the impacted areas on June 25. In a press release issued after surveying damage in the Enderlin, Page and Hunter areas, Governor Armstrong praised local leaders, first responders and community volunteers for their impressive response and recovery efforts as he surveyed damage from tornadoes and strong winds that pummeled a large swath of North Dakota last weekend. Armstrong has spoken with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins about the impact on farmers, and said the state will be looking at every tool available to help the ag sector.

“The way North Dakotans have responded to this disaster has been spectacular and is a testament to the exceptional leaders and volunteers in our close-knit communities and the power of collaboration at the local, state and federal levels,” Armstrong said. “This storm was unlike anything we’ve seen before, producing more than a dozen tornadoes in an area that stretched across over half our state and inflicting damage that will take weeks to tally. Today we saw heartbreaking destruction and upended lives, but also inspiring examples of volunteers dropping everything to help their neighbors in need, and we thank them all for their hard work, kindness and generosity.”

“Local volunteers and utility crews have made incredible progress cleaning up and restoring power, with less than 300 people remaining without power this morning, down from 37,000 on Saturday,” Armstrong added. “With the information gathered today, we’ll be exploring every option – including requesting a presidential disaster declaration – to assist local recovery efforts, help communities repair infrastructure and restore quality of life for our citizens.”