The Mugge & Mugge farm, four miles east of Royal sustained extensive damage from an EF2 tornado, which passed through Clay County on Wednesday night. Almost all of the farm's grain bins have been destroyed. Machinery on the farm also sustained extensive damage. [Order this photo]

The tornado that destroyed trees and farm buildings near Royal, Rossie and Spencer stayed on the ground for 15 miles and warranted an EF2 designation, according to the National Weather Service.

Tornados, like hurricanes, are given a number rating based on the strength of the storm. The number increases with the strength of the storm and an "EF2" on the Enhanced Fujita scale means the tornado likely had winds of 111 to 135 mph.

Meteorologist Phil Schumacher, from the agency's Sioux Falls, S.D., office led a team that surveyed damage at farmsteads Thursday in Clay County. He said the tornado developed about 3 1/2 miles south of Royal. It lifted back up into the clouds one mile east of Spencer.

A tornado ripped off a portion of the barn on the Matt Hagedorn farm, about 4 miles west of Rossie. The roof then fell on a truck and trailer. Fragments of the building also shattered the windows on a van parked nearby. A silo nearby also sustained extensive damage. [Order this photo]

"To begin the day, we met at the office and decided where we needed to go," Schumacher said. "Then I contacted the emergency manager for Clay County, Eric Tigges. He told me where the damage was, mostly with the farmstead on (Highway) 71 -- mostly because that was easy for us to find."

Tigges directed the national weather service to the Mark and Robyn Larsen farm, about 3 1/2 miles south of Spencer. Six buildings and almost all of the trees on the farm were flattened. The tornado snapped a power line across the highway and scattered debris into nearby fields. The Larsen home was essentially the only building spared by the storm and no one was injured.

"Then from there, based on reports, we followed the track and looked for debris in the field," Schumacher said. "We followed that, almost like a connect the dots. You stop at each place, take a few pictures, we talk to a few people and ask their permission as well because obviously it's very traumatic."

After locating the Larsen farm, Schumacher's team started working its way south and west to find the starting point of the tornado. He said the tours of damage helps the National Weather Service provide information to the general public about where a tornado occurred and how strong it was.

"Also, for our staff at the weather service office in Sioux Falls, we use this information to help us become better at forecasting and providing tornado warning information to the public," he said.

The Matt and Anne Hagedorn farm and the Jim Christensen farm, both roughly 4 miles west of Rossie, were some of the first locations to sustain damage.

Christensen said the tornado destroyed the machine shed and some trees on his farm. Pieces of the shed were carried over onto Hagedorn's neighboring farm.

"I saw the rain coming and it got awful dark," Matt Hagedorn said. "We saw the heavy wind coming, so we went to the basement. When we came back up, the barn was gone, half the silo was gone and trees were down."

The roof of the barn also fell on Hagedorn's truck and trailer. He thinks the truck will be a total loss and the trailer will need extensive repairs. The storm also pushed a tree on Matt and Anne Hagedorn's house, but did not cause any damage.

Workers at the Mugge & Mugge farm, four miles east of Royal, spent much of Wednesday night and early Thursday vacuuming up beans from shattered grain bins. Huge hunks of metal were tossed across a gravel road and dropped in a nearby field.

Aaron Mugge is the son of a father-son operation at the site. He said eight or nine grain bins were destroyed by the tornado.

"We have three others that need to be taken down, plus a smaller one and the big one we're emptying right now," he said, Thursday afternoon. "We're going to have about two bins left out of 16 or 17 bins."

Mugge credited the county for its help. County employees removed chunks of the grain bins, which blocked both roadways to the Mugge farm. The storm blew out windows on the tractor and ruined the electronics. Two augers were mangled. The tornado pulled out cement blocks to a nearby bunker, but didn't damage Jay and Barb Mugge's house, about a mile away.

"No one got hurt, so we're lucky on that part," Aaron Mugge said. The storm continued on its course to the Larsen farm.

The National Weather Service also noted damage to a pole shed at the Frank and Pat Rouse farm, about two miles north of Dickens. Frank Rouse isn't sure whether a tornado, or a strong straight-line wind, tossed aside his metal building. The Rouses didn't hear any loud noise -- they just noted a strong wind and rain coming into the farm sideways. They made their way to the basement as the force of the wind grew stronger.

"If we were in any danger, we didn't realize it," he said.

The Rouses had just reached the basement when the lights flickered.

I think that's when the building went, but I didn't realize it," Frank Rouse said. "I decided to come back up and get a radio. I looked out the window and noticed some metal. I realized what it was -- part of our building got blown over. I looked the other way and the whole thing was gone. It pulled the poles right out of the ground, but most of the stuff was just left there."

Wednesday night's long and strong line of thunderstorms produced 11 tornados in western Iowa, eastern Nebraska, southwest Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, according to the National Weather Service offices in Sioux Falls, S.D. and Omaha, Neb.

A National Weather Service team from Sioux Falls also evaluated an O'Brien County tornado, which developed 4 1/2 miles east of Paullina. It was on the ground continuously for five miles and lifted back into the clouds four miles south and east of Primghar. It damaged a farm southeast of Gaza. Power poles were also snapped off at the base about 1 1/2 miles south of Gaza. 


In Minnesota, a tornado developed west of Fulda and lifted back into the clouds about 3 miles north of the city. Damage from the strongest part of the tornado was observed about 2 miles north of Fulda where an injury was also reported. The tornado was on the ground for about 3 miles.

A tornado was also found 5 miles northeast of Wilmont, just inside Nobles county. It then tracked to about 1/2 mile south of Wirock in Murray county and produced primarily tree damage. Two farmsteads were hit causing considerable outbuilding damage, according to meteorologists from the Sioux Falls office.