Tornadoes in Minneapolis: 94 Since 1951, and the 1965 Day That Defined the Twin Cities
The Twin Cities are far less tornado-prone than their Upper-Midwest reputation — 94 tornadoes in 74 years, no F5 on record — but one May afternoon in 1965 still stands as the metro’s defining disaster, and the busiest month isn’t spring, it’s July.
People searching “tornadoes in Minneapolis” usually expect a scary answer, because Minnesota sits at the northern edge of Tornado Alley. The data is more nuanced. Pulling the NOAA Storm Prediction Center archive for the Twin Cities metropolitan touchdown box returns 94 tornadoes since 1951 — responsible for 20 deaths and 610 injuries. That is fewer than half the count of Chicago (176) and well under St. Louis (208) or Houston (430) over similar spans. The Twin Cities get tornadoes, but they are not a hotspot.
Two things make the metro’s record distinctive. First, it has never recorded an F5 — the ceiling here is F4, and four of the metro’s handful of violent tornadoes came from a single event. Second, the season peaks in July, not spring, which surprises almost everyone. But one date towers over the rest: May 6, 1965, when a swarm of tornadoes — including multiple F4s in one evening — tore through the northern suburbs and killed nine people. It is still the benchmark Twin Cities tornado disaster. Below is the ranked record, the story of 1965 and the 2011 North Minneapolis urban tornado, and why the Twin Cities peak in midsummer.
The deadliest Twin Cities tornadoes
Ranked by deaths, then intensity, from the SPC record for the metro box. Location labels are derived from each tornado’s touchdown coordinates; SPC totals run slightly under press tallies because the archive counts confirmed segments only. Note the two F4s at the top share a single date — the May 6, 1965 outbreak.
| Date | Area | Rating | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 6, 1965 | Fridley / northwest Twin Cities Part of the May 6, 1965 outbreak — multiple F4s in a single evening, the metro’s defining tornado disaster. | F4 | 6 |
| May 6, 1965 | Fridley / Mounds View A second F4 of the same evening, tracking through the northern suburbs. | F4 | 3 |
| Jul 20, 1951 | West metro (Hennepin Co.) | F3 | 5 |
| Jun 14, 1981 | Edina–Minneapolis–Roseville (Har Mar) The daytime tornado that hit the Har Mar Mall area on a Sunday afternoon. | F3 | 1 |
| Apr 26, 1984 | North Minneapolis / Columbia Heights | F3 | 1 |
| May 25, 2008 | Hugo (Washington Co.) Killed a toddler in a subdivision northeast of St. Paul. | EF3 | 1 |
| Sep 16, 2006 | Rogers (Hennepin Co.) A rare September tornado that killed a 10-year-old girl. | F2 | 1 |
| May 22, 2011 | North Minneapolis A weak but high-impact urban tornado through a dense city neighborhood. | EF1 | 1 |
| May 9, 1973 | South metro (Scott Co.) | F1 | 1 |
For the metro’s place in the national picture, see the deadliest-tornadoes ranking and every state ranked by tornadoes.
May 6, 1965: the Fridley outbreak
Everything in Twin Cities tornado history is measured against the evening of May 6, 1965. A slow-moving line of supercells dropped a family of tornadoes across the northern metro over roughly three hours, and the SPC record for the box logs several of them, including three separate F4s. Two were killers: one took 6 lives and injured 158 across the Fridley area, a second killed 3 and injured 175 tracking through the north suburbs. In all, the outbreak killed nine people in the metro and injured well over 300.
May 6, 1965 remains the deadliest tornado day in the metro’s record: no other single date in the SPC archive comes close to its nine metro deaths, and the outbreak reshaped how the Twin Cities prepare for and warn against severe weather. You can pull the actual conditions for that day, or any date since 1970, on our historical weather lookup.
Can a tornado hit the city itself?
It already has. On May 22, 2011, an EF1 tornado touched down and tracked across North Minneapolis, through one of the densest neighborhoods in the state. It killed one person, injured 48 and damaged hundreds of homes. By the numbers it was a weak tornado — but that is exactly the point: a low-end tornado over open farmland is a footnote, while the same storm over a packed urban grid becomes a disaster. The metro’s risk is about where tornadoes hit as much as how strong they are.
The record backs that up. The 2006 Rogers tornado (an F2) killed a 10-year-old, and the 2008 Hugo tornado (EF3) killed a toddler in a subdivision northeast of St. Paul — neither was among the strongest, both were deadly because of where they landed. Every one of the 94 metro tornadoes is plotted on our interactive tornado archive map — filter to Minnesota and zoom into Hennepin and Ramsey counties to see how close they get.
The Twin Cities peak in July, not spring
This is the detail most write-ups get wrong. Classic Tornado Alley peaks hard in April and May. The Twin Cities peak in July — the single most active month in the SPC record for the metro — with a broad May-through-August season. Northern Minnesota needs the deep summer heat and Gulf moisture to fire the supercells that reach this far north, which shifts the metro’s risk later than most people expect. Monthly counts from the SPC data:
The deadliest event, though, is the exception: the 1965 Fridley outbreak fell in early May. For how this compares to the classic spring-peak states, see Chicago’s summer-peaking record and St. Louis’s spring peak.
The metro carries an outsized share of the state’s deaths
Zoom out to all of Minnesota and the picture sharpens. The SPC database lists 2,148 tornadoes statewide since 1950, with 98 deaths and two F5s — the 1968 Tracy tornado and the 1992 Chandler–Lake Wilson tornado, both in the rural southwest. The Twin Cities box holds only about 4% of Minnesota’s tornadoes, yet it accounts for roughly one in five of the state’s tornado deaths. That gap is the whole story of urban tornado risk: the storms are not more frequent here, they are simply hitting far more people when they do — which is why a metro that has never seen an F5 still ranks among the deadliest tornado zones in the state.
Frequently asked questions
Does Minneapolis get tornadoes?
Yes, but less often than the Twin Cities’ Upper-Midwest reputation suggests. The NOAA SPC database records 94 tornadoes in the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro touchdown box between 1951 and 2024 — far fewer than Chicago (176), St. Louis (208) or Houston (430) over similar periods. They have caused 20 deaths and 610 injuries, roughly one confirmed metro tornado a year.
What was the worst tornado in Minneapolis history?
The May 6, 1965 outbreak, by far. In a single evening it dropped multiple F4 tornadoes across the northern Twin Cities — one killed 6 people and injured 158, a second killed 3 and injured 175, focused on Fridley and the north suburbs. It remains the deadliest and most destructive tornado event in Twin Cities history, and it prompted one of the first uses of coordinated tornado sirens in the region.
Has Minneapolis ever had an F5 or EF5 tornado?
No. The strongest tornado ever recorded in the Twin Cities metro box is F4 — the metro has never seen an F5 or EF5. Minnesota has recorded two F5s statewide (Tracy in 1968 and Chandler–Lake Wilson in 1992), but both struck the rural southwest of the state, well outside the metro.
How many tornadoes has the Minneapolis area had?
The NOAA SPC database records 94 tornadoes in the Twin Cities metro touchdown box between 1951 and 2024, causing 20 deaths and 610 injuries. Four were violent F4s — three of them on the single afternoon of May 6, 1965 — and ten were rated F3 or stronger. No F5 has ever been recorded in the metro.
When is tornado season in the Twin Cities?
Later than most people assume. Rather than a spring peak, the Twin Cities are busiest in mid-summer: July is the single most active month in the SPC record (26 tornadoes), ahead of May (21), August (16) and June (14). Northern Minnesota needs the deep summer heat and Gulf moisture to fuel the storms that reach this far north, which pushes the peak into July.
Explore the tornado record yourself
Every figure here comes from the NOAA SPC database, which we've made browsable. Map any state, filter by rating, or read the stories behind the record books: