Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 1985

F0 tornado, Douglas County, South Dakota, September 4, 1985

This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Douglas County on September 4, 1985, touching down at 8:00 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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
September 4, 1985
Touchdown
8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Douglas County
Touchdown point
43.320, -98.350
Record number
611

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), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. September 5, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1985-09-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 81 joules per kilogram, CIN -123, lifted condensation level 611 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, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1985-09-05The 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 136 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
81 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-123 J/kg
Surface CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
611 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
247 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KHON), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 176 km from the path. September 5, 1985.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1985-09-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 623 joules per kilogram, CIN -52, lifted condensation level 560 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, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1985-09-05The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
623 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-52 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
560 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1985 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 4, 1985

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 46:38 PM CDTF1Gregory, SD3.050$500 to $5,000
September 48:35 PM CDTF1Gosper, NE0.240$5,000 to $50,000
September 49:00 PM CDTF1Franklin, NE0.240$50,000 to $500,000
September 410:15 PM CDTF1Buffalo, NE0.250$50,000 to $500,000
September 410:54 PM CDTF1Hall, NE0.240$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.