Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2017
EF0 tornado, Eden, South Dakota, June 13, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Marshall County on June 13, 2017, touching down at 7:55 PM CDT and reaching 50 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 13, 2017
- Touchdown
- 7:55 PM CDT (00:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:56 PM CDT (00:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Marshall County
- Touchdown point
- 45.595, -97.374
- Lift-off point
- 45.596, -97.372
- Record number
- 1706131855-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.
- Damage lofted 0.1 miles to the northeast
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A large upper level low pressure trough lifting northeast over the region along with a surface cold front interacting with a warm and very humid air mass brought severe thunderstorms to the region. During the mid afternoon hours, storms rapidly developed over central and eastern South Dakota, between Pierre and Aberdeen. These storms quickly strengthened and produced large hail, damaging winds, and eventually tornadoes. The storms evolved into mainly a wind and tornado event around 7 pm CDT. Widespread wind damage occurred across northeast South Dakota as the storms formed a line and moved northeast. Many tornadoes occurred across the region, causing EF-0 and EF-1 damage.
A brief tornado touched down and caused the collapse of the entire roof of a barn. Debris was lofted 500 feet to the northeast. Minor roof damage also occurred to a second outbuilding along with minor tree damage and damage to the siding of a house.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
10 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:45 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:19 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 01:39 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:36 UTC | 09:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 10:04 UTC | 10:28 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 20:15 UTC | 01:39 UTC | Tornado Watch | ABR |
| 23:34 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABR |
| 23:57 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABR |
| 00:10 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:22 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:24 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:38 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:45 UTC | 01:19 UTC | Tornado Warning | ABR |
| 01:12 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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), 00:00Z
0.9 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. June 14, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 118 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -325 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 111 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1575 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 279 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 479 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 10.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 12:00Z
11.1 hours after it, 112 km from the path. June 14, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -73515 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1996 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 30 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -5 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:56 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:05 UTC | TORNADO | 1 S Groton | Brown, SD | |
| 23:39 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 W Pierpont | Day, SD | |
| 00:18 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wallace | Codington, SD | LARGE TREES UPROOTED. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 00:25 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Florence | Codington, SD | MOVING UP AND DOWN. |
| 00:25 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Florence | Codington, SD | 60 MPH. |
| 00:27 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Claremont | Brown, SD | LARGE TREE LIMB DOWN. TIME BASED ON RADAR. |
| 00:29 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ne Butler | Day, SD | NUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN AND STORAGE SHED COMPLETELY DESTROYED. ESTIMATED WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 90 MPH. |
| 00:29 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Wsw Webster | Day, SD | NUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN AND STORAGE SHED COMPLETELY DESTROYED. ESTIMATED WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 90 MPH. |
| 00:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 E Bristol | Day, SD | SEVERAL POWER POLES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:31 UTC | TSTM WND GST 69 | 4 W Webster | Day, SD | RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 00:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Webster | Day, SD | POWERLINES DOWN IN WEBSTER. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 7 Sw Waubay | Day, SD | AT LEAST 65 MPH ESTIMATED. |
| 00:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 8 Sw Waubay | Day, SD | AT LEAST 65 MPH ESTIMATED. |
| 00:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Nnw Webster | Day, SD | THREE POWER POLES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sw Waubay | Day, SD | DAIRY BARN PARTIALLY DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 3 S Webster | Day, SD | |
| 00:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Waubay | Day, SD | A LOT OF DAMAGE THROUGHOUT TOWN...INCLUDING TREES UPROOTED AND ON HOUSES. POWER OUTAGES ACROSS DAY COUNTY. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR. |
| 00:50 UTC | TSTM WND GST 86 | 4 W Waubay | Day, SD | |
| 00:55 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ese Eden | Marshall, SD | BARN ROOF COMPLETELY COLLAPSED. DEBRIS LOFTED ONE TENTH OF A MILE. |
| 00:56 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | 2 Se Marvin | Grant, SD | |
| 01:05 UTC | TSTM WND GST 76 | 4 Sw Hillhead | Marshall, SD | TIME ESTIMATED. |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND GST 55 | 2 Ene Sisseton | Roberts, SD | ASOS STATION 8D3, SISSETON MUNI AP. |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND GST 57 | 6 Ssw Peever | Roberts, SD | |
| 01:14 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Claire City | Roberts, SD | |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 N New Effington | Roberts, SD | TREES UPROOTED, LARGE BRANCHES BROKEN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 N New Effington | Roberts, SD | UPROOTED TREE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 9 S Rosholt | Roberts, SD | TWO CABINS DESTROYED, ONE BY WIND AND THE OTHER BY A LARGE FELLED TREE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. ESTIMATED LOCATION. |
| 01:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | 1 N New Effington | Roberts, SD | |
| 01:20 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wsw New Effington | Roberts, SD | SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE FROM A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN. |
| 01:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nne New Effington | Roberts, SD | LARGE BRANCHES BROKEN. |
| 01:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nne New Effington | Roberts, SD | LOSS OF ROOF BARN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:25 UTC | TORNADO | 2 N New Effington | Roberts, SD | TREE DAMAGE FROM A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:28 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Victor | Roberts, SD | 12-16 TREES SNAPPED. POSSIBLE TORNADO DAMAGE. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nw Victor | Roberts, SD | UPROOTED TREES. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Victor | Roberts, SD | DENTED GRAIN BINS, UPROOTED TREES. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 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 13, 2017
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 13 | 4:16 PM CDT | EF0 | Hand, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 4:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Hand, SD | 0.3 | 175 | |||
| June 13 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Hand, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 6:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Brown, SD | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 13 | 6:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Stevens, MN | 1.5 | 35 | |||
| June 13 | 6:56 PM CDT | EF1 | Stevens, MN | 3.0 | 300 | |||
| June 13 | 7:28 PM CDT | EF0 | Grant, MN | 0.5 | 75 | |||
| June 13 | 7:29 PM CDT | EF1 | Day, SD | 0.2 | 40 | |||
| June 13 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Roberts, SD | 0.4 | 100 | |||
| June 13 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF0 | Roberts, SD | 0.1 | 90 | |||
| June 13 | 8:27 PM CDT | EF1 | Big Stone, MN | 0.3 | 170 | |||
| June 13 | 8:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Traverse, MN | 0.1 | 50 |
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.