1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 31, 2:00 PM CST, 4 hours 21 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 300 PM CDT SAT JUL 31 2004 .DISCUSSION... LOOKS LIKE A TYPICAL LATE JULY/EARLY AUG PATTERN SETTING UP FOR THE NEXT WEEK. MID LVL THERMAL RDG TO MOV OVR AREA WITH SERIES OF UPR LVL WAVES RIDING OVR THE RDG AND COMG THRU THE AREA IN NW FLOW. THERE WL BE A LOW POP CHC OF NIGHTTIME/EARLY MRNG TSRA ALONG AND E OF CAP WITH THE SHRTWVS. TIMING OF THE SHRTWVS WL BE UNCERTAIN... SO WL BASE FCST MORE ON POSITION OF CAP AND DIURNAL CYCLE. INSTABILITY FOR LATE AFTN AND EVNG IS IMPRESSIVE...BUT SHEAR DECREASES RAPIDLY AS TEMPS/LIFT GET TO WHERE CONVECTION STARTS. WL HAVE SCTD PULSE TSRA THRU THE EVNG...MAINLY IN ERN ZONES...WITH SVR HAIL PSBL IN STRONGEST STORMS. LOCALLY HVY RAIN WL BE BIGGEST THREAT THRU THE NEXT WEEK WITH HIGH DWPTS...AND SLOW MVG STORMS. LONG RANGE GFS BRINGS STGR SFC FNT THRU THE AREA NEXT SAT...BUT WL PLAY THIS AS BEING TOO FAST AND KEEP WARM TEMPS THRU THE FCST PD. && .FSD...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... SD...NONE. MN...NONE. IA...NONE. NE...NONE. && MG
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 1046 AM CDT SAT JUL 31 2004 SDZ038>040-050-052>071-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097-098- IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-NEZ013-014-011200- AURORA-BEADLE-BON HOMME-BROOKINGS-BRULE-BUENA VISTA IA- CHARLES MIX-CHEROKEE IA-CLAY-CLAY IA-COTTONWOOD MN-DAKOTA NE- DAVISON-DICKINSON IA-DIXON NE-DOUGLAS-GREGORY-HANSON-HUTCHINSON- IDA IA-JACKSON MN-JERAULD-KINGSBURY-LAKE-LINCOLN-LINCOLN MN- LYON IA-LYON MN-MCCOOK-MINER-MINNEHAHA-MOODY-MURRAY MN-NOBLES MN- OBRIEN IA-OSCEOLA IA-PIPESTONE MN-PLYMOUTH IA-ROCK MN-SANBORN- SIOUX IA-TURNER-UNION-WOODBURY IA-YANKTON- 1046 AM CDT SAT JUL 31 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA... SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST IOWA...AND NORTHEAST NEBRASKA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS... A WEAK SURFACE FRONT CONTINUES TO LIE ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA INTO NORTHWEST IOWA. THIS FRONT WILL REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY THROUGHOUT THE DAY. AN UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO MOVE THROUGH PORTIONS OF THE UPPER MIDWEST LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING. THIS WILL PROVIDE ENOUGH LIFT WHICH WILL ACT UPON THE EXISTING INSTABILITY TO CAUSE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS TO FORM BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON...AND CONTINUE INTO THE EVENING HOURS. THE MORE FAVORED AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT WILL BE EAST OF THE JAMES RIVER VALLEY. A FEW STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE WITH POSSIBILITY OF DIME TO NICKEL SIZE HAIL AND WIND GUSTS OF 60 TO 70 MPH. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE POSSIBLE AFTER 2 PM CDT FOR AREAS EAST OF THE JAMES RIVER VALLEY. && FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/FSD. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK. HEITKAMP
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:21 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A tornado damaged trees and destroyed outbuildings.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Minnesota, 2004Warnings in Minnesota, July 2004
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: 5416588.