National Weather Service Rates Fridley Tornado a Strong EF1

The tornado that struck Fridley and other cities Sunday rated an EF-1 and not a more severe EF-2, according to the latest National Weather Service (NWS) analysis.

A team of five NWS meteorologists who went across the metro Monday to survey damage of Sunday's tornado have been investigating the neighborhoods hit by the tornado all week. On Monday night, they released .

On Tuesday, Pete Parbel, an administrator for NWS, said the survey team was closely examining the damage and collecting information such as what year the damaged structures were built, to decide what kind of tornado came through the metro, and at what speed the winds were.

"If a roof flies off a building, it doesn't necessarily mean a tornado came through at high speeds. It could mean that the building was never maintained," Parbel said.

If the ground had been dry, trees might not have been uprooted like they were during the storm, he added. So the survey team had to take into consideration that there was rain for a few days before the storm.

"It is a science or engineering type of analysis," Parbel said.

The latest report from the NWS confirmed that there were four different tornadoes that hit the metro area, and they varied in strength and wind speed:

FOUR TORNADOES WERE DETERMINED TO HAVE TOUCHED DOWN ON SUNDAY MAY 22 IN THE AREA SERVED BY THE CHANHASSEN NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. HERE IS A LIST OF THOSE TORNADOES...

1. NORTH MINNEAPOLIS TORNADO. RATED A STRONG EF-1 WITH WINDS OF 100-110 MPH. IT TRAVELED FROM ST LOUIS PARK... THROUGH GOLDEN VALLEY... NORTH MINNEAPOLIS...FRIDLEY...SPRING LAKE PARK...MOUNDS VIEW... AND DISSIPATED IN BLAINE AT THE ANOKA COUNTY AIRPORT. TOTAL PATH LENGTH WAS 14 AND 1/4 MILES... AND ITS MAXIMUM WIDTH WAS 1/2 MILE. TIME OF TOUCHDOWN WAS ABOUT 215 PM...THOUGH THIS WILL BE FINE TUNED AS DATA COME IN FROM VARIOUS SECURITY CAMERAS.

2. HAM LAKE TORNADO. RATED A WEAK EF-0 WITH WINDS OF ABOUT 65 MPH. IT WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 0.2 MILE AND HAD A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 30 YARDS. TOUCHDOWN TIME WAS 252 PM. THE HAM LAKE TORNADO DEVELOPED FROM THE SAME THUNDERSTORM THAT PRODUCED THE NORTH MINNEAPOLIS
TORNADO. THE PARENT THUNDERSTORM AND CIRCULATION INTENSIFIED AGAIN AS IT MOVED OVER HAM LAKE...AND THE RESULT WAS THIS BRIEF EF-0TORNADO AT 252 PM.

3. FOREST LAKE TORNADO. RATED A STRONG EF-0 WITH WINDS OF 80 TO 85 MPH. IT WAS ON THE GROUND FOR 2.6 MILES AND HAD A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 75 YARDS. IT TOUCHED DOWN NEAR 200TH STREET AND IMPERIAL AVENUE...ABOUT THREE MILES SOUTHEAST OF DOWNTOWN FOREST LAKE. IT MOVED
NORTH-NORTHEAST...DISSIPATING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE LAKE KNOWN AS FOREST LAKE...NEAR SHADYLAND POINT. THE TIME OF TOUCHDOWN WAS ABOUT 316 PM.

4. BRILL TORNADO. RATED A WEAK EF-1 WITH WINDS OF 90 TO 95 MPH. IT WAS ON THE GROUND FOR TWO MILES IN BARRON COUNTY WISCONSIN BEFORE MOVING INTO WASHBURN COUNTY. THE MAXIMUM WIDTH WAS 300 YARDS. TOUCHDOWN WAS AROUND 400 PM.

THERE WERE ALSO REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUDS IN OTHER AREAS...BUT NONE OF THOSE APPEAR TO HAVE DEVELOPED INTO A TORNADO. AND THE TORNADO REPORTED TWO MILES WEST-SOUTHWEST OF CHISAGO CITY APPEARS TO HAVE
BEEN INCORRECT. NO OTHER REPORTS OF TORNADOES IN OUR AREA HAVE COME TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.