2025 Enderlin tornado

On the night of June 20, 2025, a large and extremely violent EF5 tornado moved through rural North Dakota, United States, passing near the community of Enderlin. Part of a larger outbreak and derecho sequence that occurred across the northern Great Plains between June 19 and 22, the tornado, referred to as Enderlin Tornado #1 by the National Weather Service (NWS), was the first to be rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale since the tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2013, ending a 12-year-long period without tornadoes rated EF5. Throughout its short lifespan of only 16 minutes, it achieved a peak width of just over a mile (1.6 km) wide, and tracked a total length of 12.1 miles (19.5 km), with wind speeds in excess of 210 mph (340 km/h). It killed three people, becoming the deadliest tornado to occur in North Dakota since the F4 tornado that struck Elgin in 1978.

The tornado was given a preliminary rating of EF3, with the highest wind speeds estimated at 160 mph (260 km/h). However, this rating was upgraded to EF5 back in October following additional surveys and forensic damage analysis for the tipping and lofting of several fully-loaded grain hopper cars and empty tanker cars conducted in association with wind damage experts and researchers at the Northern Tornadoes Project, with peak winds needed to cause such damage estimated upwards of at least 266 mph (428 km/h). The tornado also destroyed multiple farmhouses and obliterated a forest along the Maple River. A statewide disaster was declared by the Governor of North Dakota following the tornado outbreak. In September, federal disaster relief was approved, but was stalled amid the 2025 United States federal government shutdown. Locals and other organizations volunteered to help with the recovery efforts.