Tornadoes in South Dakota

1. F0 / EF040 to 72 mph on the F scale, 65 to 85 mph on the EF scale

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

2. F1 / EF173 to 112 mph on the F scale, 86 to 110 mph on the EF scale

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

3. F2 / EF2113 to 157 mph on the F scale, 111 to 135 mph on the EF scale

   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. F3 / EF3158 to 206 mph on the F scale, 136 to 165 mph on the EF scale

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

5. F4 / EF4207 to 260 mph on the F scale, 166 to 200 mph on the EF scale

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

6. F5 / EF5261 to 318 mph on the F scale, over 200 mph on the EF scale

   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. Unrated

   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.

1. F4 Spencer tornado, South DakotaMay 30, 19986 killed, 150 injured
2. EF2, Hand County, South DakotaAugust 30, 20201 killed
3. F2, South DakotaJune 4, 19991 killed, 54 injured
4. F1, Roberts County, South DakotaJune 19, 19791 killed
5. F3, Brown County, South DakotaJuly 1, 19731 killed, 3 injured
6. F2, Charles Mix County, South DakotaJune 24, 19731 killed, 1 injured
7. F2, Lincoln County, South DakotaJuly 14, 19701 killed, 1 injured
8. F2, Brown County, South DakotaJuly 31, 19661 killed, 3 injured
9. F4, Turner and Yankton counties, South DakotaJune 7, 19651 killed
10. F0, Lincoln County, South DakotaJune 7, 19651 killed
11. F3, Brown, Spink, Clark and Kingsbury counties, South DakotaJune 21, 19611 killed, 7 injured
12. F2, Spink County, South DakotaJune 20, 19571 killed

1. F5 Colome tornado, South DakotaMay 8, 1965F5, 30.1 mi (48 km)
2. F4, Minnehaha and Brookings counties, South DakotaJune 7, 1993F4, 54.0 mi (87 km)
3. F4 Spencer tornado, South DakotaMay 30, 1998F4, 14.0 mi (23 km)
4. EF4, Jerauld and Beadle counties, South DakotaJune 18, 2014EF4, 11.5 mi (19 km)
5. F4 Manchester tornado, South DakotaJune 24, 2003F4, 10.0 mi (16 km)
6. F4, Lake County, South DakotaJune 7, 1993F4, 10.0 mi (16 km)
7. F4, Brown County, South DakotaJune 23, 2002F4, 9.0 mi (14 km)
8. F4, Turner and Yankton counties, South DakotaJune 7, 1965F4, 7.8 mi (13 km)
9. EF4 Bowdle tornado, South DakotaMay 22, 2010EF4, 5.7 mi (9 km)
10. F4, Harding County, South DakotaJuly 7, 1969F4, 1.8 mi (3 km)
11. F3, Brown, Spink, Clark and Kingsbury counties, South DakotaJune 21, 1961F3, 156.3 mi (251 km)
12. F3, Douglas and Davison counties, South DakotaMay 14, 1962F3, 70.4 mi (113 km)

1. F3, Brown, Spink, Clark and Kingsbury counties, South DakotaJune 21, 1961156.3 mi (251 km)
2. F3, Douglas and Davison counties, South DakotaMay 14, 196270.4 mi (113 km)
3. F4, Minnehaha and Brookings counties, South DakotaJune 7, 199354.0 mi (87 km)
4. F2, McPherson, Edmunds and Brown counties, South DakotaJune 28, 196149.7 mi (80 km)
5. F1, Gregory and Charles Mix counties, South DakotaMay 21, 196247.9 mi (77 km)
6. F2, Hamlin and Brookings counties, South DakotaJune 19, 197136.8 mi (59 km)
7. F3, Bon Homme and Hutchinson counties, South DakotaJune 26, 196535.6 mi (57 km)
8. F1, Brookings County, South DakotaMay 5, 196534.7 mi (56 km)
9. F2, Davison, Hanson and McCook counties, South DakotaAugust 8, 196934.3 mi (55 km)
10. F2, Gregory, Brule and Charles Mix counties, South DakotaJune 20, 196833.5 mi (54 km)
11. F3, Brown and Marshall counties, South DakotaMay 31, 199632.0 mi (51 km)
12. F5 Colome tornado, South DakotaMay 8, 196530.1 mi (48 km)

1. F4 Spencer tornado, South DakotaMay 30, 1998$18 million
2. F3, Hand and Beadle counties, South DakotaAugust 24, 2006$15 million
3. EF1, Gregory County, South DakotaAugust 6, 2019$7.0 million
4. EF2, Lincoln County, South DakotaSeptember 10, 2019$6.8 million
5. EF2, Jerauld County, South DakotaJune 18, 2014$5.2 million
6. F2, South DakotaJune 4, 1999$3.2 million
7. EF2, Minnehaha County, South DakotaSeptember 10, 2019$3.0 million
8. F2, Turner County, South DakotaJune 24, 2003$3.0 million
9. F4 Manchester tornado, South DakotaJune 24, 2003$3.0 million
10. F1, Minnehaha County, South DakotaJune 24, 2003$2.5 million
11. F2, Beadle County, South DakotaAugust 24, 2006$2.0 million
12. EF2, Charles Mix and Douglas counties, South DakotaMay 10, 2015$1.5 million

1. June 24, 200366tornadoes
2. June 7, 199326tornadoes
3. May 5, 200725tornadoes
4. June 4, 198020tornadoes
5. June 16, 199216tornadoes
6. May 11, 198516tornadoes
7. May 24, 196516tornadoes
8. May 12, 202214tornadoes
9. July 6, 198714tornadoes
10. May 28, 200413tornadoes
11. May 29, 198013tornadoes
12. June 19, 197913tornadoes

A tornado is counted once for every county its path crossed, so these add up to more than 1,945. Each county has a page of its own: every tornado that crossed it, year by year.

Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. It has 144 in South Dakota from 1876 to 1949, which killed 127 people and injured 736; 14 were rated F4 or above. None of them is in the figures above, which are SPC's from 1950.

1. F4 Tyler tornado, MinnesotaAugust 21, 191836 killed, 225 injured
2. F5, S Summit, SD to E Beardsley, MNJune 17, 19448 killed, 43 injured
3. F4, NW Clear Lake to W Gary, SDAugust 14, 18988 killed, 6 injured
4. F4, Bijou Hills/Academy, SDMay 27, 18997 killed, 3 injured
5. F2, Big Stone City, SD/Ortonville, MNJuly 11, 19095 killed, 28 injured
6. F4, Davis, SDSeptember 13, 19284 killed, 19 injured
7. F3, Newark, SDAugust 15, 18864 killed, 15 injured
8. F4, S Bridgewater, SDAugust 28, 18844 killed
9. F4, E Dell Rapids, SD to N Adrian, MNJuly 21, 18844 killed, 15 injured
10. F4, Florence, SDJune 17, 19443 killed, 25 injured

Significant tornadoes only

Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.

The early years are thin

A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.

Rated from accounts

Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.

The tracks are reconstructed

Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.

A separate record

SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.

Warnings in force in South DakotaForecast for your townThe live radar over South Dakota

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. Before 1950: Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.