Tornado in South Dakota, July 18, 2019

Name: Tornado in South Dakota, July 18, 2019
Start: 2019-07-18T16:15
End: 2019-07-18T16:18
Location: South Dakota

July 18, 2019 · NWS FSD · 1 event in 1 county or zone

A brief landspout occurred during the initial phase of scattered thunderstorms which developed rapidly along a weak convergence boundary.

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $2,000
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 FSD wrote it up.

A brief landspout occurred during the initial phase of scattered thunderstorms which developed rapidly along a weak convergence boundary.

What forecasters said that day

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 17, 5:22 PM CST, 22 hours 53 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 17, 5:22 PM CST, 22 hours 53 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 17, 4:33 PM CST, 23 hours 42 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:17 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Minnehaha

When: July 18, 4:15 PM CST to 4:18 PM CST
Where: Minnehaha County, 3.06 mi WSW of Crooks to 2.76 mi SW of Crooks
Rating: EF0
Path length: 0.41 mi
Path width: 5 yd
Property damage: $2,000
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 43.646, -96.872

The brief landspout touched down in a cornfield near the intersection of 467th Avenue and 258th Street. The tornado traveled generally toward the east southeast just on the north side of 258th Street, striking a farm outbuilding and removing several metal roof panels at the very end of its track.

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

Every storm in South Dakota in 2019 Every state in 2019 This day in weather history The tornado archive for South Dakota, 2019 Warnings in South Dakota, July 2019

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 847648.