Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota

2008 tornadoes in South Dakota

26 tornadoes touched down in South Dakota in 2008, about the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2007 2009 The whole country in 2008

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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.

Every tornado in South Dakota in 2008

May 24 7 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 24	4:04 PM MDT	EF0	Ziebach	0.0	10
May 24	4:11 PM MDT	EF0	Ziebach	0.0	10
May 24	4:11 PM MDT	EF0	Ziebach	0.0	10
May 24	4:18 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	0.1	20
May 24	4:21 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	0.1	20
May 24	4:22 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	0.1	20
May 24	4:24 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	2.6	400

May 29 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 29	6:13 PM CDT	EF0	Bon Homme	0.1	50
May 29	7:05 PM CDT	EF0	Yankton	0.1	50
May 29	7:10 PM CDT	EF1	Clay	2.0	100
May 29	7:17 PM CDT	EF1	Clay	1.9	100	$100,000

June 5 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 5	5:00 PM CDT	EF1	Charles Mix	9.9	100	$100,000
June 5	8:15 PM CDT	EF0	Minnehaha	1.5	50
June 5	8:42 PM CDT	EF2	Minnehaha	2.6	100
June 5	9:00 PM CDT	EF1	Moody	0.8	50	$10,000

June 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 11	5:51 AM CDT	EF1	Marshall	0.3	20

June 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 17	6:20 PM MDT	EF0	Fall River	0.0	15

June 26 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 26	7:10 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	1.2	100
June 26	7:40 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	0.3	50
June 26	7:54 PM MDT	EF0	Dewey	0.2	50

July 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 17	9:57 PM CDT	EF0	Hand	0.1	10

July 28 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 28	4:35 PM MDT	EF1	Ziebach	11.2	800
July 28	4:50 PM MDT	EF0	Ziebach	3.2	30
July 28	8:15 PM CDT	EF0	Tripp	0.0	30

August 14 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 14	3:35 PM CDT	EF0	Brown	0.1	10
August 14	4:55 PM CDT	EF0	Hyde	0.1	10

Crossed into South Dakota

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into South Dakota. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 10	7:50 PM CDT	EF1	Weston, WY to SD	7.2	400

Nearby

Every tornado in South Dakota since 1950 Warnings in force in South Dakota The live radar over South Dakota

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.