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.
The tornado was