Unrated tornado, Bruce to Benclare, Minnesota, May 27, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unratedthis tornado

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating, as surveyed

Unrated, preliminary

Date

May 27, 2026

Touchdown

5:17 PM CDT (22:17 UTC)

Lifted

5:26 PM CDT (22:26 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Rock and Minnehaha counties

Touchdown point

43.551, -96.404

Lift-off point

43.532, -96.469

Surveyed by

NWS FSD

The office's name for it

Hills Landspout

Survey last edited

July 31, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Landspout widely observed through open fields. Approximate path triangulated from numerous eyewitness pictures/videos.

Written by NWS FSD in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

Very warm temperatures led to a well-mixed lower atmosphere. Weak winds and a weakly convergence boundary in the presence of marginal moisture led to the development of high-based convection, which featured a widely viewed landspout that drifted west-southwest from Minnesota into South Dakota.

Very warm temperatures led to a well-mixed lower atmosphere. Weak winds and a weakly convergence boundary in the presence of marginal moisture led to the development of high-based convection, which featured a widely viewed landspout that drifted west-southwest from Minnesota into South Dakota.

A landspout formed around 2 miles northwest of Hills, southwest of the intersection of 40th Avenue and 51st Street. The highly visible tornado was viewed from numerous angles as it traversed slowly across open fields to the west-southwest. The tornado crossed the state line out of Rock County one-half mile south of 41st Street on 488th Avenue. The landspout continued west-southwest through Minnehaha County for less than one mile before it dissipated at 1626CST. There were no damage indicators present to derive a rating in either Rock County or Minnehaha County, giving the tornado a rating of EFU in both counties. The average path width was estimated at 40 yards based on video and photo evidence.

This landspout formed about 2 miles northwest of Hills in Rock County and entered Minnehaha County about 4 miles west-northwest of Hills. The tornado continued to the west-southwest for a little less than a mile before dissipating just northeast of the intersection of 266th Street and 487th Avenue. There were no damage indicators present to derive a rating in either Rock County or Minnehaha County, giving the tornado a rating of EFU in both counties. The average path width was estimated at 40 yards based on video and photo evidence.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

1 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.