Tornado, Brown
- When
- May 31, 4:40 PM CST to 4:45 PM CST
- Where
- Brown County, Aberdeen
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 0.5 mi
- Path width
- 15 yd
- Coordinates
- 45.470, -98.480
Tornado in South Dakota, May 31, 1996
A narrow path tornado touched down near Northern State University in Aberdeen and continued to 10th avenue SE in Aberdeen. The tornado knocked over a tall fence surrounding tennis courts and broke branches off many trees along with snapping a few trees off.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS ABR wrote it up.
A narrow path tornado touched down near Northern State University in Aberdeen and continued to 10th avenue SE in Aberdeen. The tornado knocked over a tall fence surrounding tennis courts and broke branches off many trees along with snapping a few trees off.
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 5 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:39 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes in South Dakota, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Hail in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Tornadoes in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Louisiana, May 31, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Flash Flood in Kansas, May 31, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Nebraska, May 31, 1996
More
Every storm in South Dakota in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for South Dakota, 1996Warnings in South Dakota, May 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5553866.