Central ND News

On June 20, 1957, the F5 tornado that struck Fargo became a historic event studied by Dr. Ted Fujita, who later developed the Fujita damage scale.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), on that day, Fargo experienced a sweltering and humid early summer evening as towering storm clouds rapidly developed. Every weather signal pointed to a severe thunderstorm, and Ray Jensen, the warning meteorologist at the Fargo Weather Bureau, accurately anticipated the threat and helped issue timely alerts. This buildup culminated in a catastrophic F5 tornado, central to regional and national weather history.

The tornado was officially classified as F5 after Fujita’s scale was introduced in 1971. It tracked roughly 52 miles and reached widths up to 500 yards in some segments. It carved a destructive path through Fargo and into Moorhead, Minnesota, killing between 10–13 people and injuring over 100, with property damage totaling around $25 million (1957 USD). According to Highways and Hailstones, this tornado remains North Dakota's deadliest, obliterating hundreds of homes and significant infrastructure.

An NWS assessment reports that Dr. Ted Fujita conducted an extensive photogrammetric study of about 200 photographs taken at around 40 locations of the Fargo tornado. From this meticulous analysis, he coined meteorological terms "wall cloud," "tail cloud," and "collar cloud," now standard in storm spotting and forecasting. That research also revealed the tornado as a ‘tornado family’ rather than a single vortex, laying the groundwork for Fujita’s wider tornado classification and analysis methods.

The National Weather Service (NWS), part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the primary U.S. agency responsible for weather forecasting, warnings, and meteorological research. According to Wikipedia, it was originally known as the Weather Bureau and pioneered public tornado warning systems beginning in the 1950s.