Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2006

F0 tornado, Gettysburg, South Dakota, June 24, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Potter County on June 24, 2006, touching down at 6:10 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 24, 2006
Touchdown
6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Potter County
Touchdown point
45.000, -100.000
Lift-off point
45.000, -99.980
Record number
699

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down briefly southwest of Gettysburg in an open area causing no damage.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:48 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:48 UTC23:30 UTCTornado 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

11.2 hours before the tornado, 126 km from the path. June 24, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2006-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 240 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 1382 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 2006-06-24The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
240 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1382 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 126 km from the path. June 25, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2006-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 889 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 1119 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 2006-06-25The 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 -70 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
889 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1385 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1119 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mobridge (MBG), 69 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:55 UTC7550360° 16 kt211022-RA
22:55 UTC605340° 19 kt1022.7-RA
23:03 UTC62.655.430° 13 kt1023-RA
23:55 UTC645310° 11 kt1023.4
00:55 UTC6951340° 8 kt1023.4

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

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:43 UTCHAIL 0.7512 Ese PromiseDewey, SDHAIL COVERING GROUND.
22:47 UTCTORNADO 010 Ssw Swan Creek Rec ADewey, SD
22:47 UTCTORNADO15 Ese LaplantDewey, SD
23:10 UTCTORNADO3 Wsw GettysburgPotter, SDLAW ENFORCEMENT REPORT A TORNADO ON THE GROUND 3 WEST 1 SOUTH OF GETTYSBURG
23:35 UTCTORNADO15 Ene OnidaSully, 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 June 24, 2006

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 243:13 PM EDTF0Polk, FL0.340
June 245:14 PM CDTF0Calumet, WI0.110
June 245:27 PM CDTF0Norman, MN0.125
June 244:47 PM MDTF0Dewey, SD0.510
June 246:35 PM CDTF0Sully, SD0.510
June 247:35 PM CDTF0Hand, SD0.510

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.