EF1 tornado, Burke, South Dakota, August 6, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

August 6, 2019

Touchdown

10:25 PM CDT (03:25 UTC)

Lifted

10:33 PM CDT (03:33 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.8 miles (6.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$7.0 million

County

Gregory County

Touchdown point

43.183, -99.291

Lift-off point

43.129, -99.274

Record number

1908062125-01

21 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS FSD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Lumber yard looking south, collapse of west/south facing exterior walls. Front entry likely open.
• Lumber yard looking northeast.
• Retail office for lumber yard, looking southwest. Loss of roof, collapse of most exterior walls. some interior walls remain standing.
• School, looking south. Second story load bearing wall destroyed and significant loss of roof covering. Simple metal framing covered in sheet metal.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A very unstable atmosphere was in place across south central and southeast South Dakota with around 2000 J/kg MLCAPE. As a strong upper-level wave dropped from Montana into North Dakota, storms initiated after 1400CST along a pre-frontal surface trough across north central South Dakota. As storms moved into an environment with deep-layer effective shear of 40 to 50 knots, the southernmost cells produced very large hail as well as a brief tornado near Burke later in the evening. Two people were injured when the garage they were moving cars into at the time of the storm was destroyed.

A tornado developed and touched down in the heart of town near Washington and 7th streets, causing damage to several trees at the touchdown point. Shortly after, the tornado severely damaged several structures while tracking south, including leveling several buildings at the lumber yard, destroying the civic center, and causing significant damage to the school. The start of the school year was delayed by two weeks due to extent of the damage. Two people were (directly) injured by debris when a garage collapsed on them while moving vehicles to safety. Numerous power transmission poles and lines were removed by the tornado. Around 2 miles south southeast of Burke, the tornado struck a residence causing severe damage to the roof. Shortly thereafter, the tornado lifted before reaching the intersection of 295th Street and 345th Avenue after traveling a bit less than 4 miles. The path width reached a maximum of 75 yards within the city of Burke. Up to 3000 trees were damaged by the tornado in and near Burke. Property damage costs are rough estimates.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:20 UTC and running to 04:45 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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 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.

Winner (ICR), 52 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:25 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.