F0 tornado, Hazel, South Dakota, June 13, 2001

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

June 13, 2001

Touchdown

5:11 PM CDT (22:11 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hamlin County

Touchdown point

44.770, -97.400

Lift-off point

44.770, -97.400

Record number

239

A tornado touched down briefly northwest of Hazel. No damage occurred.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:07 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

NWS Aberdeen, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jun 13, 3:00 PM CDT, 2 hours 11 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR CENTRAL/NORTHCENTRAL AND NORTHEAST
SOUTH DAKOTA AND WEST CENTRAL MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD
300 PM CDT WED JUN 13 2001

INTERESTING PACKAGE TODAY AS WE SIT BETWEEN RAIN EVENTS.  WITH THE
WET GROUND...TIMING AND LOCATION OF FUTURE EVENTS IS THE FOCUS FOR
THIS PACKAGE.  FOR TONIGHT SURFACE LOW IS CURRENTLY IN SOUTHERN
SOUTH DAKOTA WITH AN INVERTED TROUGH EXTENDING NORTHEAST INTO THIS
COUNTY WARNING AREA.  LAPS ANALYSIS DEPICTS A WARM FRONTAL BOUNDARY
THROUGH THE EAST PART OF OUR AREA.  THE SURFACE LOW WILL WEAKEN AS
THE UPPER LOW CENTER NOW OVER THE ROCKIES SWEEPS ACROSS THE PLAINS
INDUCING A STRONGER SURFACE LOW TO OUR SOUTHWEST.  IN THE INTERIM
THE INVERTED TROUGH WILL REMAIN ROUGHLY STATIONARY OVER OUR EASTERN
AREA.  CURRENT WSR-88D LOOP IS SHOWING SHOWERS FORMING ALONG THE
MISSOURI RIVER AND FILLING IN ALONG THE TROUGH IN THE EAST.  CURRENT
LAPS ANALYSIS DEPICTS CAPE VALUES OVER 5K J/KG IN SOUTHEAST SOUTH
DAKOTA. 30 KT LOW LEVEL JET IS PUSHING INTO THE SOUTH EAST PART OF
THE STATE BRINGING FAIRLY STRONG WARM ADVECTION TO THE EAST.  COLD
ADVECTION IN THE MID LEVELS HAS STARTED IN THE WEST PART OF THE
CWA.  EXPECT THUNDERSTORMS TO FORM AND DRIFT ALONG BOUNDARY IN
EASTERN PART OF THE STATE.  CURRENT FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE VALUES ARE
QUITE LOW SO WILL ISSUE A FLASH FLOOD WATCH WITH THIS PACKAGE FOR
THE EASTERN PART OF THE CWA FOR TONIGHT.  RAIN WILL CONTINUE ALONG
INVERTED TROUGH THROUGH TOMORROW UNTIL UPPER LOW PUSHES THROUGH WITH
SURFACE LOW CAPTURED IN ITS CIRCULATION.  TEMPERATURES WILL BE
MODIFIED BECAUSE OF THE RAIN BUT MOS SEEMS TO HAVE A REASONABLE
HANDLE ON THIS.

.EXTENDED FORECAST DISCUSSION...
EXTENDED MODELS ARE NOT IN VERY GOOD AGREEMENT THIS AFTERNOON.
AFTER ANALYZING THE MODELS AND THE ENSEMBLES A LITTLE MORE...I
HAVE DECIDED TO GO WITH THE A BLEND OF THE MRF AND ECMWF FOR THE
FORECAST PACKAGE. SOME RIDGING WILL BEGIN IN THE ZONAL FLOW OVER
THE STATE BY TUESDAY. WEAK SHORT WAVES WILL MOVE WITH THIS UPPER
FLOW SUNDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. THE TIMING OF THESE SHORT WAVES
STILL REMAINS TRICKY. NEVER-THE-LESS THE CHANCE OF SOME SHOWERS
AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS TIME. THE MRF MOS
TEMPERATURES LOOKS TO BE ON THE COOL SIDE DO TO THE LACK OF
DEVELOPING THE EXPECTED RIDGE. THEREFORE WILL DO SOME ADJUSTING
TO THE TEMPS MAINLY TOWARD THE END OF THE FORECAST PERIOD.

.ABR...FLASH FLOOD WATCH EASTERN CWA.

KEEFE/SALMONS

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 live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

39 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.