Alert archive / South Dakota / Tornado Warnings
Tornado Warnings in South Dakota, 2024
35 tornado warnings in 2024. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.
Tornado Warnings by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2024. Tap one for its archive.
- Tornado Warnings
- 35
- Busiest month
- May10 tornado warnings
- Busiest day
- June 2, 20247 tornado warnings
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
5 of 35 tornado warnings covering South Dakota in 2024 had a tornado report inside them; 11 of 12 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 11 minutes after it went out.
South Dakota, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 35 | 5 | 86% | 12 | 92% | 11 min |
Each office's whole area, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: tornado warnings | 14 | 3 | 79% | 7 | 100% | 14 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: tornado warnings | 27 | 4 | 85% | 12 | 50% | 9 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: tornado warnings | 11 | 2 | 82% | 4 | 100% | 6 min |
An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.
Verified by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow, which matches each storm-based warning with the local storm reports inside its polygon while it was in force, within 15 km of its edge: a tornado warning counts as verified on a tornado report, a severe thunderstorm warning on hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more, or wind damage, a flash flood warning on a flash flood report. The false alarm ratio is the share of warnings with no such report; "inside a warning" is the probability of detection, the share of reports that fell inside one; lead time runs from the warning's issue to each report inside it, counting zero for a report that came first. A warning with no report is not proof nothing happened: reports come from spotters, the public and damage surveys, and are thin where few people live.
The alerts
Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Central Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 7, 1:57 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Lincoln | 17 min |
| Apr 16, 1:36 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Union | 24 min |
| May 6, 1:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Butte, Harding | 27 min |
| May 6, 2:13 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Butte | 32 min |
| May 6, 7:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Lincoln, Minnehaha | 27 min |
| May 6, 8:10 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Minnehaha | 35 min |
| May 6, 8:20 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Brookings, Lake, Moody | 25 min |
| May 6, 8:23 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Minnehaha, Moody | 37 min |
| May 6, 8:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Brookings, Moody | 33 min |
| May 19, 6:41 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Dewey | 34 min |
| May 19, 7:37 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Corson | 23 min |
| May 19, 7:55 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell, Corson | 22 min |
| Jun 2, 4:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Meade, Perkins | 46 min |
| Jun 2, 6:00 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Beadle | 30 min |
| Jun 2, 6:13 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Clark | 32 min |
| Jun 2, 6:27 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Kingsbury | 33 min |
| Jun 2, 6:37 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Brown | 23 min |
| Jun 2, 6:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Clark, Hamlin | 33 min |
| Jun 2, 6:56 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Brown | 34 min |
| Jun 3, 6:55 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Perkins | 50 min |
| Jul 13, 10:56 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Butte | 17 min |
| Jul 19, 6:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Meade, Pennington | 33 min |
| Jul 29, 5:55 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Jones | 35 min |
| Jul 29, 6:04 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Mellette | 41 min |
| Jul 30, 7:32 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Haakon, Jackson | 20 min |
| Jul 31, 7:16 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FSD | Hutchinson | 29 min |
| Aug 26, 4:01 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Pennington | 29 min |
| Aug 26, 4:55 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Custer | 16 min |
| Aug 26, 5:27 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | UNR | Oglala Lakota | 33 min |
| Aug 28, 7:18 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell, Corson | 27 min |
| Aug 28, 7:40 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell, Corson | 35 min |
| Aug 28, 8:11 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell | 34 min |
| Aug 28, 8:43 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell | 32 min |
| Aug 28, 9:11 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell, McPherson | 20 min |
| Aug 28, 9:41 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ABR | Campbell, McPherson | 21 min |
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Campbell County7
- Corson County4
- Butte County3
- Minnehaha County3
- Moody County3
- Lincoln County2
- Brookings County2
- Meade County2
- Perkins County2
- Clark County2
- Brown County2
- Pennington County2
- McPherson County2
- Union County1
- Harding County1
- Lake County1
- Dewey County1
- Beadle County1
- Kingsbury County1
- Hamlin County1
- Jones County1
- Mellette County1
- Haakon County1
- Jackson County1
- Hutchinson County1
- Custer County1
- Oglala Lakota County1
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20232025
Sources
National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Warning verification from the Mesonet's Cow. Rebuilt daily.