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 Aberdeen, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 8, 2:53 AM CST, 4 hours 12 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD 353 AM CDT SAT MAY 8 2004 .SHORT TERM...TODAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT STATIONARY FRONT TO THE SOUTH WILL WOBBLE A BIT TO THE NORTH TODAY BUT REMAIN TO THE SOUTH OF AREA DURING THE DAY. MODELS SUGGEST CAPES INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY TODAY WHILE CIN ERODES. CIN HOLDS THE STRONGEST IN THE NORTHEAST. IT MAY BE HARD TO GET ANYTHING STARTED TODAY DUE TO THIS CAP. A BETTER CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL COME TONIGHT AS SURFACE LOW TRACKS THROUGH THE STATE. STORMS MAY FIRE TO THE WEST AND TRACK EAST ACROSS THE STATE. THE AREA IS IN A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE STORMS...MAINLY FOR TONIGHT. MODELS HAVE TRENDED SLOWER WITH THE SPEED OF THE LOW. SO...HAVE SLOWED TIMING OF POPS SLIGHTLY FOR TONIGHT. ALSO HAVE BUMPED UP HIGHS A BIT FOR SUNDAY SINCE MODELS ARE TRENDING WARMER. COLD FRONT PUSHES THROUGH LATE SUNDAY NIGHT MAKING FOR A COOL MONDAY. ON MONDAY...WEST COAST UPPER TROUGH WILL MAKE PROGRESS INLAND. THE QUESTION IS HOW MUCH? UKMET/GFS ARE SLIGHTLY FASTER WITH IT BY 00Z TUESDAY VERSUS THE ETA/CANADIAN. IF MODEL FUTURE MODEL CONSENSUS IS THE QUICKER SOLUTION...POPS MAY NEED TO BE INTRODUCED INTO THE MONDAY NIGHT TIME PERIOD. HAVE LEFT IT OUT FOR NOW. .LONG TERM...TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY UNSETTLED LONG WAVE TROUGH OVER CENTRAL AND NORTHERN PLAINS ASSOCIATED WITH A SPLIT IN THE FAST ZONAL FLOW DEVELOPING ON ALL MEDIUM RANGE MODELS. REGION OPENS TO GULF SO HAVE GOOD MOISTURE ADVECTION FROM SOUTH AS SHORTWAVES ENHANCE STRENGTH IN GENERAL TROUGHINESS. GFS COOLER AND WEAKER THAN ECMWF BUT OTHERWISE DISPLAYS SIMILAR PATTERNS AND TIMING OF WAVES. GOOD PRECIPITABLE WATER OVER THE NORTHERN PLAINS INDICATES WELL MOISTENED AIR COLUMN CAPABLE OF CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT. INSTABILITY INDICATORS (CAPE... POT VORT...EHI...MOISTURE TRANSPORT...) ALL POINT TO SOME CONVECTION TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. STILL TOO EARLY TO REFINE TIMING TO EXACT PARTS OF THE DAY. NEXT MAJOR SHOT AT MOISTURE NEXT WEEKEND ONCE THE TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY SHORTWAVES CLEAR THE REGION. TEMPERATURES WILL BE AFFECTED BY CLOUD COVER SO EXPECT NEAR NORMAL READINGS. MOSTLY MINOR TWEAKS AS GOING FORECAST APPEARS TO HAVE SITUATION WELL DEPICTED. && .ABR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... SD...NONE. MN...NONE. KNUTSVIG/MCNULTY
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD 513 AM CDT SAT MAY 8 2004 MNZ039-046-SDZ003>011-015>023-033>037-045-048-051-091012- BIG STONE-BROWN-BUFFALO-CAMPBELL-CLARK-CODINGTON-CORSON-DAY-DEUEL- DEWEY-EDMUNDS-FAULK-GRANT-HAMLIN-HAND-HUGHES-HYDE-JONES-LYMAN- MARSHALL-MCPHERSON-POTTER-ROBERTS-SPINK-STANLEY-SULLY-TRAVERSE- WALWORTH- THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PARTS OF CENTRAL...NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA...AS WELL AS BIG STONE AND TRAVERSE COUNTIES IN MINNESOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE TODAY AND TONIGHT ACROSS THE AREA. SOME STORMS MAY REACH SEVERE LIMITS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED. KNUTSVIG
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 172 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 13:02 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning strike in Pierre broke four windows out of a home, destroyed four television sets in two different homes, destroyed a computer, shattered a car windshield, broke out a garage window, and peeled some bark from a tree.
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, May 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: 5399651.