Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 1969

F1 tornado, Codington County, South Dakota, June 25, 1969

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Codington County on June 25, 1969, touching down at 2:15 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

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

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

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

  6. F5261 to 318 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. 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 25, 1969
Touchdown
2:15 PM GMT-5 (19:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Codington County
Touchdown point
45.120, -96.930
Record number
321

The air that afternoon

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.

Aberdeen, SD (KHON), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 118 km from the path. June 25, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1969-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6583, lifted condensation level 973 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1969-06-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 297 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6583 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
973 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
297 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KHON), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 118 km from the path. June 26, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1969-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 113 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 2467 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1969-06-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
113 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
835 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2467 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
91 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1969 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 25, 1969

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 251:30 AM GMT-5F1Boone, NE13.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 251:30 AM GMT-5F2Madison, NE20.510$5,000 to $50,000
June 2511:15 AM GMT-5F2Douglas, SD6.62002$5,000 to $50,000
June 251:40 PM GMT-5F2Rock, MN29.31205$50,000 to $500,000
June 253:25 PM GMT-5F1Faulk, SD0.110
June 254:15 PM GMT-5F0Kandiyohi, MN0.313$500 to $5,000
June 254:15 PM GMT-5F3Brown, SD1.51336$50,000 to $500,000
June 255:40 PM GMT-5F1Ransom, ND0.4471$5,000 to $50,000
June 255:45 PM GMT-5F1Meeker, MN2.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 256:00 PM GMT-5F0Brown, SD0.110
June 256:00 PM GMT-5F2Oklahoma, OK0.810$500 to $5,000
June 2510:05 PM GMT-5F1Kent, MI6.1200$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.