Alert archive / South Dakota / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 271

June 3, 20265 counties in Minnesota; 9 counties in North Dakota; 40 counties in South Dakota

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jun 3, 2026, 4:02 PM CDT for 5 counties in Minnesota; 9 counties in North Dakota; 40 counties in South Dakota. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jun 3, 2026, 4:02 PM CDT (21:02 UTC)
Expired: Jun 3, 2026, 11:00 PM CDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 2 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 54 counties

Big Stone County, MN, Clay County, MN, Norman County, MN, Traverse County, MN, Wilkin County, MN, Barnes County, ND, Cass County, ND, Dickey County, ND, Griggs County, ND, Ransom County, ND, Richland County, ND, Sargent County, ND, Steele County, ND, Traill County, ND, Aurora County, SD, Beadle County, SD, Brookings County, SD, Brown County, SD, Brule County, SD, Buffalo County, SD, Charles Mix County, SD, Clark County, SD, Codington County, SD, Davison County, SD, Day County, SD, Deuel County, SD, Douglas County, SD, Edmunds County, SD, Faulk County, SD, Grant County, SD, Gregory County, SD, Hamlin County, SD, Hand County, SD, Hanson County, SD, Hughes County, SD, Hutchinson County, SD, Hyde County, SD, Jerauld County, SD, Jones County, SD, Kingsbury County, SD, Lake County, SD, Lyman County, SD, Marshall County, SD, McCook County, SD, McPherson County, SD, Mellette County, SD, Miner County, SD, Roberts County, SD, Sanborn County, SD, Spink County, SD, Stanley County, SD, Sully County, SD, Todd County, SD, Tripp County, SD

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 39 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:02 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: 40%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 40%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 90%

Warnings issued inside it

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 3, 5:00 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Jones	45 min
Jun 3, 5:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Beadle	54 min
Jun 3, 5:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Jones, Lyman	50 min
Jun 3, 6:02 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Mellette, Tripp	43 min
Jun 3, 6:05 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Beadle	40 min
Jun 3, 6:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Brown, Marshall	49 min
Jun 3, 6:29 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Lyman	46 min
Jun 3, 6:35 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	UNR	Mellette, Tripp	55 min
Jun 3, 6:40 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Beadle	35 min
Jun 3, 6:46 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Jones, Lyman	28 min
Jun 3, 7:01 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Brown, Marshall	44 min
Jun 3, 7:03 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	UNR	Tripp	42 min
Jun 3, 7:18 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Codington, Deuel, Hamlin	33 min
Jun 3, 7:26 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Lyman	49 min
Jun 3, 7:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Marshall, Roberts	37 min
Jun 3, 7:41 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	UNR	Tripp	18 min
Jun 3, 7:47 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Big Stone	23 min
Jun 3, 7:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Brule	24 min
Jun 3, 7:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Codington, Deuel, Hamlin	38 min
Jun 3, 7:56 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Brule, Charles Mix, Gregory	49 min
Jun 3, 8:04 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Roberts	26 min
Jun 3, 8:06 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	UNR	Tripp	24 min
Jun 3, 8:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	ABR	Lyman	24 min
Jun 3, 8:12 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Beadle, Kingsbury	32 min
Jun 3, 8:16 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Charles Mix, Gregory	29 min
Jun 3, 8:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	FSD	Aurora, Brule, Charles Mix, Gregory, Jerauld, Sanborn	41 min
Jun 3, 8:50 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ABR	Clark, Codington, Hamlin	40 min
Jun 3, 9:11 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FSD	Aurora, Brule, Charles Mix, Davison, Douglas, Hanson and 3 more	49 min
Jun 3, 9:45 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	FSD	Davison, Hanson, Lake, McCook, Miner, Sanborn	45 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

Minneapolis, MN (KMPX), launched 12:00Z, 9.0 hours before the alert went out and 355 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 2372 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 3, 2:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Big Stone, Traverse, Wilkin	3 hr
Jun 3, 5:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kittson, Marshall, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, Roseau	2 hr
Jun 2, 8:13 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Bowman, Hettinger, Slope	2 hr
Jun 3, 6:16 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Richland, Sargent	89 min
Jun 2, 8:56 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bennett, Jackson, Mellette, Oglala Lakota	2 hr
Jun 3, 5:07 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bon Homme	113 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in South Dakota, 2026 Tornado Watches in North Dakota, 2026 Tornado Watches in Minnesota, 2026 Every tornado watch in 2026

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.