Alert archive / South Dakota / Tornado Watches in 2025

Tornado Watch 574

August 5, 202512 counties in North Dakota; 24 counties in South Dakota

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Aug 5, 2025, 4:03 PM CDT for 12 counties in North Dakota; 24 counties in South Dakota. It was in force for 8 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 5, 2025, 4:03 PM CDT (21:03 UTC)
Expired: Aug 6, 2025, 12:00 AM CDT
In force: 8 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 36 counties

Burleigh County, ND, Dickey County, ND, Emmons County, ND, Grant County, ND, Kidder County, ND, LaMoure County, ND, Logan County, ND, McIntosh County, ND, Morton County, ND, Oliver County, ND, Sioux County, ND, Stutsman County, ND, Brown County, SD, Campbell County, SD, Clark County, SD, Codington County, SD, Corson County, SD, Day County, SD, Deuel County, SD, Dewey County, SD, Edmunds County, SD, Faulk County, SD, Grant County, SD, Hamlin County, SD, Hand County, SD, Hughes County, SD, Hyde County, SD, Marshall County, SD, McPherson County, SD, Potter County, SD, Roberts County, SD, Spink County, SD, Stanley County, SD, Sully County, SD, Walworth County, SD, Ziebach County, SD

The radar

The Bismarck radar (KBIS), 102 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:04 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 40%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 50%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 30%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

37 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 5, 4:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	LaMoure, Logan, McIntosh	65 min
Aug 5, 4:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dickey, LaMoure, McIntosh	51 min
Aug 5, 4:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Kidder, Stutsman	61 min
Aug 5, 4:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dickey	59 min
Aug 5, 5:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dickey, LaMoure, Logan, McIntosh	41 min
Aug 5, 5:43 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Dickey, McIntosh	32 min
Aug 5, 6:02 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Dickey, McIntosh	28 min
Aug 5, 6:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	McPherson	50 min
Aug 5, 6:12 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	BIS	Dickey, McIntosh	6 hr
Aug 5, 6:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	BIS	Dickey, McIntosh	63 min
Aug 5, 6:23 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	BIS	Dickey	24 min
Aug 5, 6:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	BIS	Dickey	67 min
Aug 5, 6:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Brown, McPherson	26 min
Aug 5, 6:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	McPherson	65 min
Aug 5, 7:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	McPherson	62 min
Aug 5, 7:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Day, Marshall	49 min
Aug 5, 7:37 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ABR	McPherson	23 min
Aug 5, 7:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Edmunds, Walworth	49 min
Aug 5, 7:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Edmunds, McPherson	47 min
Aug 5, 7:56 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ABR	McPherson	34 min
Aug 5, 7:57 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	ABR	Marshall, Roberts	33 min
Aug 5, 8:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Clark, Codington, Day, Grant	43 min
Aug 5, 8:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Brown, Edmunds, McPherson	46 min
Aug 5, 8:22 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	ABR	Edmunds, Faulk, Potter, Walworth	38 min
Aug 5, 8:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Brown, Edmunds	45 min
Aug 5, 8:57 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	ABR	Edmunds, Faulk, Potter, Walworth	48 min
Aug 5, 9:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Marshall, Roberts	27 min
Aug 5, 9:04 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ABR	Marshall	4 hr
Aug 5, 9:38 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Brown, Day	32 min
Aug 5, 9:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Edmunds, Faulk, Potter	60 min
Aug 5, 10:41 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Faulk, Hyde, Potter, Sully	35 min
Aug 5, 10:54 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	ABR	Codington, Deuel, Hamlin	51 min
Aug 5, 11:03 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Codington, Deuel, Grant	57 min
Aug 5, 11:06 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ABR	Codington	3 hr
Aug 5, 11:09 PM CDT	Flash Flood Warning	ABR	Grant, Roberts	3 hr
Aug 5, 11:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Codington, Deuel, Hamlin	40 min
Aug 5, 11:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Faulk, Hand, Spink	56 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Bismarck Municip, ND (KBIS), launched 12:00Z, 9.1 hours before the alert went out and 98 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 515 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -199 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 970 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 145 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 5, 2:40 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Burleigh, Dickey, Emmons, Grant, Kidder, LaMoure and 3 more	2 hr
Aug 5, 2:58 AM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bennett, Butte, Custer, Fall River, Haakon, Harding and 6 more	92 min
Aug 5, 5:21 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Custer, Fall River, Lawrence, Oglala Lakota, Pennington	114 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2025 Tornado Watches in North Dakota, 2025 Every tornado watch in 2025

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.