1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 Aug 23, 9:54 AM CST, 6 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 1054 AM CDT MON AUG 23 2004 .DISCUSSION... OUTFLOW BNDRY FM OVERNIGHT CONVECTION WELL DEFINED IN SFC WND FIELDS FM W OF KVTN TO S OF KOAX. LLJ HAS WKND...AND EARLIER MCS HAS ERODED AWAY. APPEARS THAT RECENT DVLPMNT OF TSRA ACRS CNTRL/N CNTRL NEBRASKA WAS ON APEX OF LOW LVL CONVERGENCE...BUT NEW EXTENSION INTO S CNTRL SD NOW ALG MID LVL TROUGH AXIS. MOST OF SC IN WAKE OF MORNING CONVECTION HAS BEEN DVLPG FM SW MN INTO NW IA...AND ALSO ALONG CONVERGENCE AXIS THRU FAR WRN CWA. NLG PROFILER CONTINUES TO INDICATE NICE WAA VEERING...SO EXPECT CONVERGENCE/FRONTOGENETIC AXIS TO BE MAIN FOCUS FOR PCPN THRU DAY AND INTO EVNG. WL KEEP THINGS ON SCT LVL FOR NOW WITH BEST COVERAGE ALG AND S OF I90...BUT WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED TO BUMP UP TO LKLY AS BECOMES GREATER COVERAGE LTR AFTN INTO EARLY EVNG. CLDS/PCPN LKLY TO KEEP TMPS DOWN AS WELL...AND WL KNOCK HIGHS BACK WITH MAIN STG SFC TEMP GRADIENT EXPECTED TO REMAIN ACRS FAR W. WL HAVE TO MENTION SOME SVR THREAT WITH AFTN TSRA...MAINLY LOOKING AT PULSY TYPE MULTICELL ACTIVITY AS WIND FIELDS NOT INDICATING A LARGE DEGREE OF ORGANIZATION POTENTIAL. OAX RAOB INDICATES A FAIR DEGREE OF CAPE POTENTIAL IF CAN HEAT INTO MID 80S...BUT WL HAVE TO REPLACE WORKED OVER AIR IN CWA TO GET THINGS GOING...AND ENOUGH TO GET SOME QUARTER SIZE HAIL OR BURSTY WINDS TO 60 TO 65 MPH. WITH LOW LCL AND OUTFLOW BNDRY...WOULD NOT PUT PAST A COUPLE OF ISOLD SPINUP VORTICES AS WELL DURING DEVELOPMENT STAGE AS BL HEATS OUT A BIT MORE ARND MO RVR THIS AFTN. && .FSD...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... SD...NONE. MN...NONE. IA...NONE. NE...NONE. && CHAPMAN
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 818 AM CDT MON AUG 23 2004 SDZ038>040-050-052>071-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097-098- IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-NEZ013-014-241200- 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- 818 AM CDT MON AUG 23 2004 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA... SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST IOWA...AND NORTHEAST NEBRASKA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS... SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MID MORNING. ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MAY DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON SOUTHEAST OF A TYNDALL TO SIOUX FALLS TO WORTHINGTON LINE. FINALLY...THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON ALONG A COLD FRONT OVER WESTERN AND CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA. THESE THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE INTO SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA DURING THE LATE EVENING...AND POSSIBLY INTO SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA AND NORTHWEST IOWA AFTER MIDNIGHT. DUE TO LIMITED INSTABILITY...SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED WITH ANY OF THIS ACTIVITY. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA ON TUESDAY AFTERNOON. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG THE COLD FRONT FROM NEAR BROOKINGS SOUTH TO NEAR YANKTON DURING THE AFTERNOON. THE THUNDERSTORMS ARE THEN EXPECTED TO MOVE SOUTHEAST INTO NORTHWEST IOWA AND SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA DURING THE EVENING. ISOLATED SEVERE WEATHER IN THE FORM OF LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND ARE POSSIBLE. THE SAME COLD FRONT WILL REMAIN THE AREA ON WEDNESDAY. THUNDERSTORMS MAY ONCE AGAIN DEVELOP OVER THE AREA WITH ISOLATED SEVERE WEATHER POSSIBLE. THUNDERSTORMS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE ON FRIDAY. AT THIS TIME IT IS TO EARLY TO FORECAST THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERE WEATHER WITH THESE THUNDERSTORMS. THIS THREAT WILL BE CLOSER DEFINED IN LATER OUTLOOKS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY AND TONIGHT. && FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/FSD. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK.
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 190 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 16:00 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck a grain elevator at Cedar Grove Colony, blowing out the sides and bottom of the elevator. The lightning also overloaded a transformer and damaged the electrical system at the mill, resulting in a small fire at a fertilizer storage bin.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Dakota in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in South Dakota, August 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: 5418868.