A strong thunderstorm that passed through Walsh County on Saturday afternoon caused extensive damage to a building and several airplanes at the Grafton (N.D.) Municipal Airport, officials reported.
A dispatcher with the Walsh County Sheriff's Department told the Herald that airport equipment estimated 100 mph winds swept through the area as the storm hit about 4:30 p.m.
The storm damaged a hangar and five airplanes inside the building, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage to the planes. That doesn't include damage to the hangar.
No one was injured, the dispatcher said, but there was some street flooding in Grafton.
Al Voelker, senior meteorologist with the Grand Forks National Weather Service office, said the storm developed rapidly between 4 and 4:15 p.m. The agency issued a tornado warning at 4:17 p.m. as conditions quickly changed.
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One weather service spotter reported that Grafton got 1.25 inches of rain in a "very short period of time," Voelker said.
At 4:35 p.m., a tornado that was near state Highway 17 about four miles east of Grafton snapped two power poles, dented three steel bins and brought down trees in a shelterbelt. A weather service preliminary storm report said it was an EF-1 tornado.
Law enforcement officials reported a funnel cloud five miles southeast of Grafton at 4:41 p.m., according to the weather service.
Weakening storm
Voelker said the storm that came through Grafton "pretty much tracked straight east" across the Red River and into Minnesota, moving into Marshall County. A tornado warning was issued for the county, and a wall cloud was reported north of Warren, Minn., at 5:45 p.m.
At about the same time, the weather service received reports of 1-inch hail that fell two miles northeast of Warren, Minn.
Voelker said the storm eventually shifted to a southeast direction, going through Pennington, Red Lake and part of Polk counties.
"It still looked tornadic to us as it crossed the river and maintained its strength for a time after that, but gradually weakened," he said.
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Most tornado warnings for eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota had expired by 8:30 p.m. Saturday, but Voelker said most counties in this area were still under severe thunderstorm watches until later in the night.
But later, another tornado warning was issued for central Polk County until 9:30 p.m. after a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was sighted on Doppler radar about five miles west of Key West, Minn., or nine miles east of Grand Forks.
At 9:05 p.m., a trained spotter saw a tornado without a visible funnel lofting debris about nine miles north of Crookston in Polk County.
Ryan Johnson is a reporter for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
