Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2006
F0 tornado, Holabird to Highmore, South Dakota, August 24, 2006
From Holabird to Highmore, this F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hyde County on August 24, 2006, touching down at 5:13 PM CDT and reaching 20 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 24, 2006
- Touchdown
- 5:13 PM CDT (22:13 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Hyde County
- Touchdown point
- 44.630, -99.580
- Lift-off point
- 44.630, -99.580
- Record number
- 829
What the Weather Service recorded
A supercell thunderstorm produced another weak tornado in Hyde county north of Holabird. No damage occurred with this tornado.
A supercell thunderstorm continued on its track to the southeast producing another weak tornado north of Highmore. The tornado crossed highway 14. No damage occurred with this tornado.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:57 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:41 UTC and running to 00:52 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:41 UTC | 00:52 UTC | Tornado Watch | ABR |
| 21:57 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABR |
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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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
10.2 hours before the tornado, 98 km from the path. August 24, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 3787 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -166 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2363 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 769 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 7 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 19 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 130 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
1.8 hours after it, 98 km from the path. August 25, 2006.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1638 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -178 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1324 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 552 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 87 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 139 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 7.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:14 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:56 UTC | HAIL 4.25 | 8 W Agar | Sully, SD | MOSTLY TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL WITH A FEW SOFTBALL SIZE. A WINDSHIELD WAS DAMAGE ON A VEHICLE. |
| 21:15 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 5 W Agar | Sully, SD | |
| 21:24 UTC | HAIL 1 | 3 N Agar | Sully, SD | |
| 21:40 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ne Onida | Sully, SD | |
| 22:03 UTC | TSTM WND GST 63 | Onida | Sully, SD | MEASURED AT THE AIRPORT. |
| 22:10 UTC | TORNADO | 16 Nnw Highmore | Hyde, SD | |
| 22:29 UTC | HAIL 1 | 18 Nnw Highmore | Hyde, SD | |
| 22:35 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Highmore | Hyde, SD | TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FROM 533 PM CDT TO 535 PM CDT. |
| 22:44 UTC | HAIL 1 | 14 N Miller | Hand, SD | |
| 23:07 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Miller | Hand, SD | |
| 23:07 UTC | TORNADO | W Miller | Hand, SD | |
| 23:18 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 4 S Miller | Hand, SD | |
| 23:21 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Miller | Hand, SD |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 24, 2006
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 24 | 1:01 PM CDT | F0 | Morton, ND | 0.8 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| August 24 | 1:55 PM CDT | F2 | McLean, ND | 2.0 | 90 | $200,000 | ||
| August 24 | 4:00 PM EDT | F0 | Martin, FL | 0.3 | 30 | $20,000 | ||
| August 24 | 3:03 PM CDT | F0 | Kidder, ND | 1.0 | 40 | |||
| August 24 | 4:40 PM CDT | F1 | Sully, SD | 5.0 | 600 | |||
| August 24 | 5:03 PM CDT | F3 | McPherson, SD | 14.0 | 300 | 1 | ||
| August 24 | 5:08 PM CDT | F0 | Brown, MN | 0.5 | 30 | 2 | $200,000 | |
| August 24 | 5:30 PM CDT | F3 | Nicollet, MN | 33.0 | 880 | 1 | 37 | $24 million |
| August 24 | 5:33 PM CDT | F0 | Hyde, SD | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| August 24 | 6:07 PM CDT | F2 | Hand, SD | 5.0 | 300 | |||
| August 24 | 6:28 PM CDT | F3 | Hand, SD | 24.5 | 500 | 2 | $15 million | |
| August 24 | 7:18 PM CDT | F2 | Beadle, SD | 7.0 | 300 | $2.0 million | ||
| August 24 | 7:23 PM CDT | F0 | Beadle, SD | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| August 24 | 7:56 PM CDT | F0 | Kingsbury, SD | 0.1 | 50 |
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.