F0 tornado, Reva, South Dakota, August 8, 2002

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

August 8, 2002

Touchdown

2:34 PM MDT (20:34 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Harding County

Touchdown point

45.650, -103.230

Lift-off point

45.650, -103.220

Record number

236

A storm chaser saw a tornado form and persist for 3 minutes over open prairie in eastern Harding County. The storm left no damage or debris.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 20:17 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.

NWS Rapid City, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Aug 8, 1:55 PM MDT, 39 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR WESTERN SD AND NORTHEASTERN WY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD
155 PM MDT THU AUG 8 2002

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH ENTIRE AREA EXCEPT CAMPBELL COUNTY
WYOMING THIS EVENING...
VIGOROUS PACIFIC SHORT WAVE MOVING INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS THIS
AFTERNOON WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE INTENSE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY AS
IT MOVES OUT OF SOUTHERN MONTANA INTO NORTHEAST WYOMING AND WESTERN
SOUTH DAKOTA. FORECAST HODOGRAPHS INDICATE A PREFERENCE FOR LINEAR
ORGANIZATION...STRONG WINDS AND LARGE HAIL. THE WINDS ARE OF
PARTICULAR CONCERN FOR NWRN SD...N AND NE OF THE BLACK HILLS...SINCE
THE SHORT WAVE WILL CONTRIBUTE 50+ MPH WIND SPEEDS TO THE MID LEVELS
OF THE ATMOSPHERE ACROSS WRN SD BY MIDNIGHT.  SEVERE WEATHER
OPERATIONS IN PROGRESS AT UNR.

ONLY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS WERE MADE TO LATER PERIODS OF THE PACKAGE. A
SOMEWHAT UNSTABLE NW FLOW WILL KEEP THE WEATHER MODERATELY ACTIVE
THROUGH THE END OF THE WEEK...THEN LARGE SCALE SUBSIDENCE AND DRY
AIR WILL PROVIDE A RESPITE FROM MIDDAY SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.
SUMMERTIME HEATING AND A WEAK MID LEVEL SHORT WAVE WILL PRODUCE SOME
WEATHER MON AND TUE...WITH FAIR SKIES DOMINATING WED AND THU.

.UNR...NONE.

CARPENTER

In the hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD
1131 AM MDT THU AUG 08 2002

TIME(MDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0945 PM    3 NW FAIRPT               SD   65 MPH TSTM GUST
08/07/02   MEADE                          REPORTED BY PUBLIC.

1000 PM    1 S REVA                  SD    MPH TSTM GUST
08/07/02   HARDING                        EVENT DURATION 30
                                          MINUTES. REPORTED BY
                                          STORM SPOTTER.

1003 PM    ZEONA                     SD   70 MPH TSTM GUST
08/07/02   PERKINS                        REPORTED BY PUBLIC.

1030 PM    PRAIRIE CITY              SD   60 MPH TSTM GUST
08/07/02   PERKINS                        REPORTED BY STORM
                                          SPOTTER.

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 2002 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.