Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota

2011 tornadoes in South Dakota

19 tornadoes touched down in South Dakota in 2011, 26 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2010 2012 The whole country in 2011

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 2011

May 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 8	8:03 PM CDT	EF0	Lyman	0.1	10

May 9 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 9	8:55 PM MDT	EF1	Haakon	2.5	30	$5,000
May 9	9:45 PM MDT	EF0	Haakon	0.0	20	$5,000
May 9	11:07 PM MDT	EF0	Pennington	1.5	30	$50,000

May 30 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 30	6:26 PM CDT	EF0	Charles Mix	0.5	50
May 30	8:12 PM CDT	EF0	Lake	0.7	50
May 30	8:22 PM CDT	EF0	Lake	0.5	50

June 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 12	6:34 PM MDT	EF0	Harding	2.1	10			$20,000

June 14 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 14	1:52 PM CDT	EF0	Todd	0.0	10
June 14	4:28 PM CDT	EF0	Hand	0.2	10
June 14	4:45 PM CDT	EF0	Hand	0.1	10

June 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 17	6:28 PM CDT	EF0	Marshall	0.6	30

July 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 1	12:55 PM MDT	EF0	Butte	0.0	10

July 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 18	3:36 PM MDT	EF1	Harding	9.8	100			$5,000

July 26 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 26	7:05 PM CDT	EF0	Walworth	0.4	10
July 26	7:15 PM CDT	EF0	Potter	0.1	10
July 26	8:40 PM CDT	EF0	Marshall	0.9	25

August 14 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 14	7:35 PM MDT	EF0	Corson	0.2	10
August 14	7:55 PM MDT	EF0	Corson	0.2	10

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.