Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 1996

F0 tornado, Henry, South Dakota, July 17, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Codington County on July 17, 1996, touching down at 10:31 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
July 17, 1996
Touchdown
10:31 PM CDT (03:31 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Codington County
Touchdown point
44.970, -97.450
Lift-off point
44.970, -97.450
Record number
649

What the Weather Service recorded

A brief touchdown of a narrow path tornado occurred six miles north of Henry and damaged the roof of a house and also damaged some outbuildings. Path length and width were estimated.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:14 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:14 UTC03:45 UTCTornado WarningABR
03:50 UTC04:35 UTCTornado WarningABR

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 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 (KABR), 00:00Z

3.5 hours before the tornado, 75 km from the path. July 18, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1996-07-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 4029 joules per kilogram, CIN -8, lifted condensation level 1079 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 1996-07-18The 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 109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
4029 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-8 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4935 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1079 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.3
Supercell composite
17.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z

8.5 hours after it, 75 km from the path. July 18, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1996-07-18Temperature 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 -61644, lifted condensation level 1435 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 1996-07-18The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61644 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1435 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Watertown (ATY), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:53 UTC8375140° 9 kt1005.8
02:53 UTC8175140° 9 kt1005.1TS
03:53 UTC8075170° 14 kt1005.4
04:53 UTC7563350° 15 kt191007.5TS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:31 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 17, 1996

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 175:02 PM ESTF1Howard, IN2.1440$70,000
July 175:36 PM CDTF0McLean, ND1.020
July 177:36 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.310
July 177:39 PM CDTF0Day, SD0.310
July 177:52 PM CDTF2Day, SD5.0150$200,000
July 178:05 PM CDTF1Day, SD3.050
July 178:51 PM CDTF0Day, SD0.310
July 179:00 PM CDTF0Whiteside, IL0.320
July 1711:20 PM CDTF0Swift, MN0.150
July 1712:01 AM CDTF0Codington, SD0.310

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.