Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 1997

F0 tornado, Hayti to Lake Norden, South Dakota, June 22, 1997

From Hayti to Lake Norden, this F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Hamlin County on June 22, 1997, touching down at 4:26 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
June 22, 1997
Touchdown
4:26 PM CDT (21:26 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hamlin County
Touchdown point
44.580, -97.100
Lift-off point
44.580, -97.100
Record number
822

What the Weather Service recorded

Several supercell thunderstorms moved southeast along a strong warm front from eastern Corson County to southwest Deuel County from the morning through the late afternoon producing several tornados, large hail, very heavy rains, and damaging winds. Hail up to the size of baseballs and winds gusting to 70 mph damaged and destroyed thousands of acres of crops, broke windows in homes, buildings, vehicles, damaged roofs and chipped paint off walls, and downed many trees from near Mobridge to Redfield to Toronto. The most extensive crop, building, and tree damage was around the areas of Redfield, Vienna, Naples, Hazel, Bryant, Henry, Lake Norden, Castlewood, Estelline, and Toronto all south of Highway 212. The hail swaths of destruction were as much as 10 miles wide in places. Some farmers said you could not even tell what was planted because the crops were completely destroyed. Hail piled up to one to two feet in places. Also, most of the area from Redfield to Toronto received one to three inches of rain which caused some flooding problems.

A weak narrow path tornado touched down 7 miles southeast of Hayti. Path length and width were estimated.

A tornado touched down near Lake Norden 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.

The warnings

26 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:00 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:50 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:34 UTC21:35 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
21:00 UTC21:50 UTCTornado WarningABR
21:33 UTC22:05 UTCTornado WarningABR
23:06 UTC00:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:17 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 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), 12:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 109 km from the path. June 22, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 1997-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1357 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 762 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 1997-06-22The 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 79 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
1357 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
762 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 109 km from the path. June 23, 1997.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 1997-06-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1720 joules per kilogram, CIN -221, lifted condensation level 1224 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 1997-06-23The 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 320 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
1720 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-221 J/kg
Surface CAPE
922 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1224 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
320 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
538 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
33.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Watertown (ATY), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC756960° 16 kt261011.9-RA
21:41 UTC73.469.8140° 11 kt241011.9-RA
21:53 UTC7370170° 23 kt1011.2-RA
22:05 UTC71.666.2160° 22 kt281010.8-RA
22:53 UTC7061140° 16 kt231009.1

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

The radar

The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:27 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 1997 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 22, 1997

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2212:30 PM CDTF0Edmunds, SD0.123
June 2212:30 PM CDTF0Edmunds, SD0.210
June 221:30 PM CDTF0Comanche, TX0.533$70,000
June 222:37 PM EDTF0Lee, FL2.710$210,000
June 222:45 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.210
June 224:28 PM CDTF1Hamlin, SD0.523
June 224:45 PM CDTF1Hamlin, SD0.823
June 225:30 PM CDTF0Brookings, SD0.150
June 225:39 PM CDTF0Brookings, SD0.150
June 225:05 PM MDTF0Weld, CO0.150
June 225:10 PM MDTF1Adams, CO0.150
June 228:00 PM MDTF1Morgan, CO0.150$40,000

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.