EF5 tornado that killed 3 in North Dakota was the nation’s first in 12 years

By SARAH RAZA

A deadly tornado that tore across southeastern North Dakota this summer has been upgraded to an EF5 with winds topping 200 mph, the strongest classification of tornado and the first confirmed on American soil in a dozen years, meteorologists said Monday.

The June 20 twister near the town of Enderlin killed three people and at its largest was 1.05 miles wide, carving a path across the prairie for just over 12 miles. Meteorologists from the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks estimated the tornado’s winds reached 210 mph, according to the newly released analysis.

The 1999 Bridge Creek-Moore tornado in Oklahoma holds the record of the strongest winds ever recorded in the U.S. at 321 mph.

Since the National Weather Service began using Enhanced Fuj

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