WASHINGTON — An EF5 tornado struck North Dakota this year, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday, marking the first tornado of that strength in more than a decade on American soil.

The incredibly strong twister touched down in Enderlin, North Dakota on June 20, the NWS wrote in an advisory released on Oct. 6 , using data gathered from the tornado's path in the nearly four months since it passed.

Meteorologists from the Grand Forks office headed into the field the morning following the tornado to examine the damage it had wreaked. It usually takes from days to weeks to determine the strength of a tornado by its wind speed, which meteorologists do by examining the damage to buildings and trees. This tornado took much longer to analyze because the damage it inflicted on the rail c

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