Thunderstorms produced damaging winds in and near Sioux Falls, in southeast South Dakota, a little before daybreak on May 25th.
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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 episode as NWS FSD wrote it up.
Thunderstorms produced damaging winds in and near Sioux Falls, in southeast South Dakota, a little before daybreak on May 25th.
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 May 25, 2:52 AM CST, 38 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Sioux Falls SD 352 AM CDT WED MAY 25 2016 .SHORT TERM...(Today and Tonight) Issued at 352 AM CDT Wed May 25 2016 Corfidi vectors suggest parallel stratiform MCS across the region this morning will shift off to the east. Atmosphere behind the MCS is conditionally unstable, with 2-3K J/kg of surface CAPE developing. Cap becomes fairly minimal by late this afternoon, but still struggling to see how widespread convection could develop with lack of trigger mechanism across the region. Would not be surprised if a storm or two was able to develop solely based on surface heating, but pinpointing that location is difficult. The best chance for this to occur would be across the highway 14 corridor where the capping inversion is slightly weaker, but can't rule out any particular location in the forecast area. If by chance a storm is able to develop, not an overly supportive environment for tornadoes with weak shear in the low levels; however, models suggest steep lapse rates of 9.5-10 C/km along and west of the James River by late afternoon. Therefore, not entirely possible to rule out a landspout out west with initial development in the updraft phase. Elsewhere, think that wind and especially hail will be the primary severe threats. 0-6 km bulk shear vales around 25 knots suggest marginal organization, but think that the large CAPE values due to the steep lapse rates from 700-500 mb will be of greater significance. As for highs today, have lowered highs just a touch with filtered sunshine expected through much of the day. This makes breaking the cap that much more difficult. As heating dies away tonight, atmosphere becomes capped off making the instability difficult to realize. Have kept some 20-30 pops ahead of a weak boundary working through overnight, but with lack of any upper level support, am not sure there will be a lot of convection with the front. .LONG TERM...(Thursday through Tuesday) Issued at 352 AM CDT Wed May 25 2016 Thursday should be a warm day with the environment gradually becoming more unstable with increasing shear. At this time the most unstable air will likely be south of Interstate 90...with what appears to be a good potential for about 2000 to 3000 j/kg CAPE and 30 to 40 knots of surface to 6 km shear. Not a whole lot to say about the Thursday night into Friday night time frame as much of the time will be spent with showers and thunderstorms. Low pressure is expected to deepen across Colorado as low pressure gradually shears out across North Dakota into southern Canada. These two waves will work to keep the low and mid level thermal gradient in place which will help provide additional lift for showers and thunderstorms. While severe weather does not look likely in the immediate area, a strengthening low level jet and strong instability will work north towards far southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa on Thursday night. This may prove to be the best chance for severe thunderstorms into the weekend. In the outer periods (Saturday through Tuesday), an unsettled weather pattern will continue through the period. Saturday likely to see the best chance for rain and thunderstorms as low pressure lifts northeast. A good chance for a dry Sunday in many locations as subsidence and mid and upper level height rises suggest that precipitation chances will be lower. Troughiness Monday and Tuesday will again support the chance for thunderstorms with warm and relatively humid air expected. overall highs will mainly be in the 70s to lower 80s with lows in the mid 50s to lower 60s. && .AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Wednesday night) Issued at 1036 PM CDT Tue May 24 2016 Convection continues to roll eastward out of western SD/NE late this evening. This linear system will continue to move towards Huron shortly after 1am, but isn't expected to arrive in the Interstate 29 corridor until after 4am. At this point, not anticipated severe weather to impact the terminals, however couldn't rule out a brief gust of wind or small hail. Showers will continue into mid-morning with lowering ceilings, perhaps into MVFR categories, through mid-day. Afternoon convection will still be possible late afternoon and early evening, but confidence on location too low to include a mention in current TAF. && .FSD Watches/Warnings/Advisories... SD...None. MN...None. IA...None. NE...None. && SHORT TERM...BT LONG TERM...08 AVIATION...Dux
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 418 AM CDT WED MAY 25 2016 MNZ071-072-097-SDZ039-040-054>056-061-260930- LINCOLN MN-LYON MN-PIPESTONE-KINGSBURY-BROOKINGS-MINER-LAKE-MOODY- MCCOOK- 418 AM CDT WED MAY 25 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...EAST CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA AND SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A COMPLEX OF STORMS WILL MOVE THROUGH THIS MORNING. THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE. ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS MAY REDEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON. IF THESE STORMS ARE ABLE TO DEVELOP, THEY WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS TO 60 MPH AND HAIL TO THE SIZE OF PING PONG BALLS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY AN ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN WILL BRING PERIODIC THUNDERSTORMS TO THE REGION THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. SEVERE STORMS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD. HOWEVER... SPECIFIC TIMING AND LOCATION OF THE SEVERE THREAT IS UNCERTAIN AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. SDZ038-050-052-053-057>060-063>065-068-069-260930- BEADLE-GREGORY-JERAULD-SANBORN-BRULE-AURORA-DAVISON-HANSON- CHARLES MIX-DOUGLAS-HUTCHINSON-BON HOMME-YANKTON- 418 AM CDT WED MAY 25 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA...EAST CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA...SOUTH CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA AND SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A COMPLEX OF STORMS WILL MOVE THROUGH EARLY THIS MORNING. THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE. ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS MAY REDEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON. IF THESE STORMS ARE ABLE TO DEVELOP...THEY WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS TO 60 MPH AND HAIL TO THE SIZE OF PING PONG BALLS. WHILE THE TORNADO THREAT IS LOW...A BRIEF SPIN UP CAN NOT BE RULED OUT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON. IF THESE STORMS DEVELOP...LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS ARE POSSIBLE. AN ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN WILL BRING PERIODIC THUNDERSTORMS TO THE REGION THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. SEVERE STORMS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD. HOWEVER... SPECIFIC TIMING AND LOCATION OF THE SEVERE THREAT IS UNCERTAIN AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-MNZ080-081-089-090-098-NEZ013- 014-SDZ062-066-067-070-071-260930- LYON IA-OSCEOLA-DICKINSON-SIOUX-O'BRIEN-CLAY IA-PLYMOUTH-CHEROKEE- BUENA VISTA-WOODBURY-IDA-MURRAY-COTTONWOOD-NOBLES-JACKSON-ROCK- DIXON-DAKOTA-MINNEHAHA-TURNER-LINCOLN SD-CLAY SD-UNION- 418 AM CDT WED MAY 25 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHWEST IOWA...WEST CENTRAL IOWA...SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHEAST NEBRASKA AND SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A COMPLEX OF STORMS WILL MOVE THROUGH THIS MORNING. THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BE SEVERE. ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS MAY REDEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON. IF THESE STORMS ARE ABLE TO DEVELOP...THEY WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS TO 60 MPH AND HAIL TO THE SIZE OF PING PONG BALLS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THERE IS A CHANCE OF SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON. IF THESE STORMS DEVELOP...LARGE HAIL TO THE SIZE OF GOLFBALLS AND DAMAGING WINDS UP TO 70 MPH ARE POSSIBLE. AN ACTIVE WEATHER PATTERN WILL BRING PERIODIC THUNDERSTORMS TO THE REGION THROUGH THE FIRST HALF OF THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. SEVERE STORMS AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD. HOWEVER... SPECIFIC TIMING AND LOCATION OF THE SEVERE THREAT IS UNCERTAIN AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED.
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 09:31 UTC.
4 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including at least one large branch blown down.
Thunderstorm winds destroyed two empty grain bins and a storage building, blew windows out of cars, damaged the roof of two buildings, and blew several large branches down.
Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a large tree blown down.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Dakota in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in South Dakota, May 2016
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: 633953, 633964, 633965, 633966.