Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2012

EF0 tornado, Redfield Arpt, South Dakota, August 3, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Spink County on August 3, 2012, touching down at 5:45 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
August 3, 2012
Touchdown
5:45 PM CDT (22:45 UTC)
Lifted
5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Spink County
Touchdown point
44.850, -98.540
Lift-off point
44.850, -98.538
Record number
1208031645-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of low pressure and associated cold front moving across South Dakota produced many severe thunderstorms. Tennis ball size hail and damaging wind gusts up to eighty mph along with a few tornadoes were reported.

The public reported a tornado briefly touching down in a cornfield.

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

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:40 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 00:24 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:15 UTC00:24 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchABR
20:40 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
21:44 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
22:17 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
22:34 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
22:40 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningABR
22:53 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR
23:25 UTC02:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryABR
23:35 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:38 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

10.8 hours before the tornado, 12 km from the path. August 3, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 12:00Z on 2012-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 254 joules per kilogram, CIN -271, lifted condensation level 1688 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 2012-08-03The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
254 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-271 J/kg
Surface CAPE
53 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1688 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 12 km from the path. August 4, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Aberdeen, SD at 00:00Z on 2012-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 496 joules per kilogram, CIN -320, lifted condensation level 857 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 2012-08-04The 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 55 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
496 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-320 J/kg
Surface CAPE
774 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
857 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
155 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:46 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
22:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 60FaulktonFaulk, SD
22:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 601 S ChelseaFaulk, SD
22:17 UTCTSTM WND GST 701 S ChelseaFaulk, SDLARGE TREE BRANCHES DOWN HEAVY RAIN AND SMALL HAIL
22:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 80RedfieldSpink, SD70-80 MPH WIND LARGE BRANCHES DOWN QUARTER SIZED HAIL AND 0.94 INCHES RAIN
22:44 UTCTSTM WND GST 805 S MelletteSpink, SD70-80 MPH
22:45 UTCTORNADO2 Ssw RedfieldSpink, SDPUBLIC REPORTED A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IN A CORN FIELD AROUND 545PM. TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND FOR ABOUT 1 MINUTE.
22:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Nne FrankfortSpink, SD3 GRAIN BINS DESTROYED. NUMEROUS TREES IN SHELTER BELT DOWN. SIGNIFICANT CROP DAMAGE FROM COMBINATION OF WINDS AND DIME SIZED HAIL.
22:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 60DolandSpink, SD
23:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W TurtonSpink, SDNUMEROUS TREES DOWN...POWER LINES DOWN...BUILDING MOVE 50 FEET OFF FOUNDATION...DAMAGED OCCURED FROM 3 TO 6 MILES WEST OF TURTON
23:03 UTCTSTM WND GST 70BrentfordSpink, SDTREES AND TREE BRANCHES DOWN IN BRENTFORD
23:05 UTCTORNADO3 S CondeSpink, SDBRIIEF TOUCHDOWN 1 2 MILES SW OF LOCATION IN CORNFIELD
23:07 UTCTSTM WND GST 80TurtonSpink, SDWIND 70-80 MPH 0.85 INCHES OF RAIN
23:08 UTCHAIL 1DolandSpink, SD50 MPH
23:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 60RaymondClark, SD
23:27 UTCHAIL 17 Sw HitchcockBeadle, SD
23:29 UTCHAIL 1.758 Ssw HitchcockBeadle, SD
23:35 UTCHAIL 14 Ne WolseyBeadle, SD
23:45 UTCHAIL 16 E BroadlandBeadle, SD
23:46 UTCHAIL 15 Ese BroadlandBeadle, SD
23:52 UTCTSTM WND GST 782 Nnw HuronBeadle, SD

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 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 3, 2012

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 36:05 PM CDTEF0Spink, SD0.310

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.