F0 tornado, Aberdeen to Putney, South Dakota, May 31, 1996

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 31, 1996

Touchdown

6:05 PM CDT (23:05 UTC)

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Brown County

Touchdown point

45.470, -98.420

Lift-off point

45.470, -98.420

Record number

262

A brief touchdown of a narrow path tornado occurred 5 miles southwest of Aberdeen with no damage reported. Path length and width were estimated.

A tornado touched down 3 miles southwest of Aberdeen and collapsed the west side of a Quonset hut by bending the steel frame beams, destroyed and tossed a 2 ton grain bin, with reinforced steel beams, 100 feet. The tornado also tossed a light-weight grain bin 100 feet into a row of trees, destroyed the grain bin. Also, several trees in the shelter belt were destroyed.

A narrow path tornado touched down near Northern State University in Aberdeen and continued to 10th avenue SE in Aberdeen. The tornado knocked over a tall fence surrounding tennis courts and broke branches off many trees along with snapping a few trees off.

A brief touchdown of a narrow path tornado occurred 3 miles east of Aberdeen with no damage reported. Path length and width were estimated.

A brief touchdown of a narrow path tornado occurred 2 miles east of Putney with no damage reported. Path length and width were estimated.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:40 UTC, 25 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.

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 2 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:03 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.