The first EF5 tornado since 2013 has been confirmed in North Dakota
This tornado, which knocked a train off its tracks, ends the 12-year 'drought' of EF5 tornadoes since the Moore, Oklahoma storm in 2013.
A mile-wide EF5 tornado tore through Enderlin, North Dakota, on June 20, killing three and tossing train cars 475 feet. It was the strongest U.S. twister in more than a decade.
A 12-year EF5 tornado drought ended Monday morning with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, announcing that a twister in Enderlin, North Dakota, on June 20 had winds greater than 210 mph. That classifies it as a monster EF5 tornado, the highest rating possible. The tornado killed three people and was more than a mile wide — leaving a massive scar on satellite images.
The unusually high forensic damage wind speed estimates came from the twister tipping fully loaded grain hopper cars from a train, and tossing one empty tanker car nearly 500 feet, the NWS said. Trees were also uprooted and tossed by the tornado with root balls. Other trees left standing had only stubs of trunks and were debarked. A local farmstead was swept clean off its foundation.
A home is destroyed after the Enderlin, North Dakota tornado on June 20, 2025. (Aaron Rigsby)
The tornado was one of 25 twisters that night, which also featured a derecho and post-derecho high winds across much of the state.
On May 20, 2013, an extremely powerful tornado destroyed a huge part of Moore, Oklahoma. Twelve years later, until today, it remained the most recent tornado to be rated EF5 strength, comprising the longest gap in between EF5 tornadoes since official United States' records began in 1950.
