Enderlin Tornado That Claimed 3 Lives is North Dakota’s Deadliest Since 1978

Home about 3 miles east of Enderlin. (Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) -The tornado that killed three people in rural Enderlin was the most deadly North Dakota has seen in nearly five decades.

While North Dakota sees an average of about 23 tornadoes a year, fatalities are rare, National Weather Service data indicates. The last tornado to claim three or more lives in the state was a July 4, 1978, storm that killed five people in Elgin. It was recorded as an F4.

Between the 1978 tornado and last weekend’s storm, North Dakota recorded four fatal tornadoes: an F2 in Renville County in 1997, an EF4 in Northwood in 2007, an EF3 in Ward County in 2010 and an EF2 in Watford City in 2018. Each of them resulted in one fatality.

The deadliest North Dakota tornado on record took place June 20, 1957, in Fargo, an F5 that claimed 10 lives.