Over 80 Weather Warnings Associated with Tuesday Storms

For over seven hours, severe weather rolled through central and eastern South Dakota, northern Nebraska, western Iowa and western Minnesota on Tuesday (June 13).

The first warning arrived at 3:26 PM for a thunderstorm that developed near Herrick with the potential of large hail in western Gregory County. Moments later at 3:28 PM about a hundred miles north of the first storm, a second storm with strong winds and hail northwest of Miller in Hand County sprang to life.

By 10:33 PM one last warning came from these storms for areas east of Sioux Falls in southwest Minnesota. An estimated total of advisories issued by the National Weather Service from this event from three different bureaus over that seven-hour period is 82. The most prolific time period stretched from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM when 50 warnings were issued.

A total of nine reports of tornadoes plus a couple of funnel cloud sightings are included in all of the wind and hail reports. Two of the twisters were reported near White Lake with others in the proximity of Burke and Ravinia on the southern end (around Fort Randall Dam), three sightings clustered in northeast Hand County and one near Groton which is near Aberdeen on the north side.

Once the storms crossed the James River, the tornado threat shifted over strong winds. Sioux Falls recorded winds up to 65 miles per hour during the storm with one report near Crooks indicated a possible 75 mph gust.

Most of the hail reports came from south of Interstate 90 with the most being .75 to 1.75 inches in diameter. Heavier rainfall totals were north of I-90 following the Missouri River north to Pierre then through Aberdeen, Watertown and Sisseton.

W=wind
H=hail
T=tornado
FC=funnel cloud
F=flood

The rainfall total in Sioux Falls was officially .39 inches of rain at the NWS office near the airport. A power outage and various downed tree limbs were also part of the storm’s aftermath.

Consecutive severe weather days will give way to a couple days in the 80’s with more shower potential Thursday night and Friday.

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