Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2011

EF0 tornado, Okreek, South Dakota, June 14, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Todd County on June 14, 2011, touching down at 1:52 PM CDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  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
EF0
Date
June 14, 2011
Touchdown
1:52 PM CDT (18:52 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Todd County
Touchdown point
43.346, -100.494
Lift-off point
43.346, -100.494
Record number
1106141252-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A severe thunderstorm developed along a frontal boundary across Mellette County. It produced large hail across eastern Mellette, eastern Todd, and southwestern Tripp Counties. A brief tornado touched down west of Okreek but caused no damage or injuries.

A small tornado briefly touched down. It caused no damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:16 UTC01:43 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR
18:54 UTC19:30 UTCTornado WarningUNR
19:29 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR

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 16:30 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.

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z

6.9 hours before the tornado, 208 km from the path. June 14, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2011-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 140 joules per kilogram, CIN -211, lifted condensation level 1733 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2011-06-14The 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 2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
140 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-211 J/kg
Surface CAPE
215 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1733 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 00:00Z

5.1 hours after it, 208 km from the path. June 15, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2011-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 64 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 1598 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2011-06-15The 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 -43 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
64 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1304 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1598 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-43 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:51 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
18:43 UTCHAIL 1N WoodMellette, SD
18:53 UTCTORNADO15 W CarterTodd, SD
20:20 UTCHAIL 1.75ClearfieldTripp, SD
20:25 UTCHAIL 12 Se ClearfieldTripp, SD

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 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 14, 2011

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 144:28 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD0.210
June 144:45 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD0.110
June 148:03 PM CDTEF0Merrick, NE0.525
June 1410:53 PM CDTEF0Linn, MO3.8100

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.