F3 tornado, Aberdeen to Amherst, South Dakota, May 31, 1996

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

May 31, 1996

Touchdown

5:52 PM CDT (22:52 UTC)

Path length

32.0 miles (51.5 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$750,000

Counties

Brown and Marshall counties

Touchdown point

45.470, -98.480

Lift-off point

45.730, -97.920

Record number

1140

An F1 tornado organized over the parking lot of the Target Shopping Center in Aberdeen and tracked northeast towards Bath. It destroyed a green house (a large tent) and it's contents in the Target parking lot, uprooted and snapped trees as it crossed U.S. Highway 12. In addition, it took out the south wall, including a large overhead door, of a cinder block warehouse, broke windows in buildings, and lifted a box car off the train tracks. It also tipped over several semi trailers (the tractors were not attached) rolled over and destroyed a motor home, and threw a pickup truck and it's occupant about 70 feet. The occupant was sligtly injured. Between Aberdeen and Bath, the tornado contained multiple vortices as it strengthened to an F3. Most trees in a shelter belt northeast of Aberdeen were snapped or uprooted and a garage was completely destroyed. Several farms were hit 1 to 2 miles north of Bath. Many outbuildings were destroyed. Two layers of shingles were peeled off a garage and several trees were uprooted. Twelve to 15 high tension utility poles were damaged or destroyed and 17 wooden poles were destroyed along the path of the tornado. The outages caused by the tornado affected several hundred customers. The tornado continued to the northeast producing F1 damage between Bath, Putney, and Claremont. It snapped and uprooted many trees. Outbuildings like grain bins and calf barns were destroyed. Debris was deposited 1 mile away in some instances. A John Deere chopper was turned 180 degrees by the twister. The tornado continued on into Marshall County where it weakened and dissipated near Amherst. No damage was reported in Marshall county except for some trees downed.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:40 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:25 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 08:18 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

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

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 23 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:51 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.

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

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.