Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 1980

F0 tornado, Jackson County, South Dakota, June 4, 1980

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jackson County on June 4, 1980, touching down at 1:55 PM MDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
June 4, 1980
Touchdown
1:55 PM MDT (19:55 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Jackson County
Touchdown point
43.470, -101.300
Record number
443

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.

Rapid City, SD (KRAP), 12:00Z

7.9 hours before the tornado, 143 km from the path. June 4, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 1980-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1652 joules per kilogram, CIN -272, lifted condensation level 1721 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 1980-06-04The 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 57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1652 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-272 J/kg
Surface CAPE
27 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1721 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KRAP), 00:00Z

4.1 hours after it, 143 km from the path. June 5, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 1980-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 100 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 3050 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 1980-06-05The 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 21 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
100 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
881 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3050 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
21 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1980 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 4, 1980

33 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 411:20 AM CDTF0Beadle, SD0.110under $50
June 41:55 PM CDTF0Renville, ND0.110
June 42:45 PM CDTF1Ward, ND0.110
June 41:45 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 41:45 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 42:55 PM CDTF0McHenry, ND0.110
June 41:55 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 43:00 PM CDTF0McHenry, ND0.110
June 42:02 PM MDTF0Dunn, ND0.110
June 42:30 PM MDTF1Dunn, ND0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 42:50 PM MDTF0Dunn, ND0.110
June 42:58 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 43:00 PM MDTF1Dunn, ND0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 43:10 PM MDTF0Jackson, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 44:20 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:20 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:20 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:20 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:25 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:30 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:30 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:30 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 44:35 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:35 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:35 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:40 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:40 PM MDTF0Perkins, SD0.110
June 44:55 PM MDTF1Adams, ND7.430$5,000 to $50,000
June 45:22 PM MDTF0Hettinger, ND0.110$50 to $500
June 45:40 PM MDTF0Grant, ND0.110
June 46:40 PM CDTF1Hansford, TX2.560$50,000 to $500,000
June 45:50 PM MDTF0Stark, ND0.110
June 45:58 PM MDTF0Grant, ND0.110

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.