From this point, the tornado continued to widen and intensify further into one of the most intense tornadoes to affect the Northern Plains. The next two miles were spent over thick grassy fields as it slowly began to curve towards the southeast. The grass was utterly stripped from the earth. And not just the grass; the ground was scoured here to a depth of seven or eight inches. In fact, as this tornado continued to the southeast toward another farm, the swath of ground scouring reached a maximum of 700-yards-wide. This is one of the widest such swaths in tornado history. The only tornado that can be officially confirmed to have a wider swath of ground scouring is the May 27, 1997, Jarrell TX, F5. It is at this point that the tornado reached maximum intensity. The mile-high stovepipe was so fully shrouded in soil one could hardly even see the rotational motion of the funnel within. The Noot Family had been out baling hay when they saw the tornado bearing down on them. Quickly they sought shelter in the basement of a neighbor’s home. Their neighbor ultimately decided that his concrete basement was not safe enough, and the group opted to outrun the tornado in their car.
Weakening and narrowing, the tornado crossed a pond and tore into the farm. The damage to the Noot property was extreme. The NWS surveyor who rated this tornado, Greg Gust, often described in Skywarn Spotter classes that this tornado had “picked up everything in the farmyard and mixed it, like a blender on liquefy, and deposited it as wind-rows of debris”.
After crossing the pond, the tornado swept away several steel-framed outbuildings to the north. This was on the fringe of the most extreme swath but was still affected by violent winds. A large metal truss was wrapped around a tractor, and other steel beams were wrapped around trees. That tractor was originally in an outbuilding that was dismantled, the tractor was thrown into the air, and landed with this I-beam wrapped around it. A bulldozer was mutilated by flying debris. The remains of a tractor body with a single large wheel also came to rest in this area.