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Chalk up yet another unprecedented extreme weather event for Minnesota. 

The Duluth NWS office confirms a tornado tore through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Cook County and crossed the Canadian border into Ontario on Oct. 10. The twister flattened huge trees and tore through several well-traveled lakes from just north of the Gunflint Trail into Canada. 

It’s the first tornado warning and tornado recorded in the BWCA in October. 

The tornado touched down near Alder Lake, which is just east of the popular East Bearskin Lake entry point. It pushed straight north through Caribou and Clearwater lakes and across the Canadian border before lifting in Ontario. I have traveled this popular BWCA route before and camped on Alder and Clearwater lakes.

Here are some of the details from the Oct. 10 BWCA tornado.

The tornado damage swath is so significant that it’s visible from weather satellites 22,000 miles above the earth as a “tornado scar.”

This unprecedented, out-of-season, October tornado is yet another data point that climate change has stretched our season in Minnesota beyond the limits of what was expected or possible in the past 100 years. 

Kudos to the Duluth NWS office for issuing an impressive 34-minute lead time for this tornado. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

This is the first recorded tornado in the BWCA in October on record.

Unprecedented: October tornado in the Boundary Waters

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