Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2020
EF1 tornado, Holabird, South Dakota, June 7, 2020
This EF1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Hyde County on June 7, 2020, touching down at 6:05 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- June 7, 2020
- Touchdown
- 6:05 PM CDT (23:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:07 PM CDT (23:07 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.4 miles (0.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Hyde County
- Touchdown point
- 44.777, -99.570
- Lift-off point
- 44.782, -99.569
- Record number
- 2006071705-01
The damage survey
24 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.
- Sheet metal debris ENE from abandoned farm across the hwy
- Awning over dog kennels tossed 200 feet NNE
- calf shed blown to NE 100 feet
- Calf barn moved 100 feet lofted over trees
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 strong surface low pressure area in central South Dakota along a stalled southwest to northeast surface boundary brought numerous severe thunderstorms to central and northeast South Dakota. The severe storms moved over the same areas multiple times into the early morning hours of June 8th. Large hail from quarter to golf ball size, wind gusts of 60 to 90 mph, along with four tornadoes occurred. Numerous structures and trees were damaged or destroyed from these storms.
South of the main farm, calving sheds were pushed to the north. On the main property a machine shed was destroyed with debris tossed roughly 100 feet to the northeast. Several trees were snapped and a livestock trailer was tipped over. A long barn also lost its roof and the main barn doors were pushed in. Wet grass from rain and wind accumulated on the east side of a machine shed.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:31 UTC and running to 05:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:31 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ABR |
| 22:07 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 22:32 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 23:13 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:15 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 00:24 UTC | 00:46 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:08 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:15 UTC | 01:39 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:30 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:34 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 01:59 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 02:27 UTC | 02:39 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ABR |
| 03:11 UTC | 03:32 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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
11.1 hours before the tornado, 93 km from the path. June 7, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1690 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -147 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1943 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1215 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 539 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 503 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.5
- Supercell composite
- 17.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.9 K/km
Aberdeen, SD (KABR), 00:00Z
0.9 hours after it, 93 km from the path. June 8, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1869 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -15 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2765 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2410 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 136 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 118 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 4.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.0 K/km
The surface observations
Pierre (PIR), 72 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:05 UTC | 200° 19 kt | 27 | 996.6 | |||
| 21:15 UTC | 190° 16 kt | 996.3 | ||||
| 21:20 UTC | 190° 17 kt | 995.9 | ||||
| 21:25 UTC | 190° 17 kt | 995.9 | ||||
| 21:30 UTC | 190° 17 kt | 22 | 995.9 | |||
| 21:35 UTC | 190° 18 kt | 22 | 995.6 | |||
| 21:50 UTC | 200° 11 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 21:53 UTC | 96 | 60 | 180° 16 kt | 23 | 994.9 | |
| 21:55 UTC | 190° 15 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 22:00 UTC | 180° 16 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 22:03 UTC | 96 | 60 | 190° 15 kt | 994.9 | VCTS | |
| 22:05 UTC | 220° 15 kt | 22 | 994.9 | |||
| 22:10 UTC | 220° 14 kt | 21 | 994.6 | |||
| 22:15 UTC | 200° 14 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 22:20 UTC | 170° 13 kt | 22 | 994.9 | |||
| 22:25 UTC | 24 kt | 31 | 995.3 | |||
| 22:30 UTC | 130° 16 kt | 22 | 995.3 | |||
| 22:32 UTC | 81 | 64 | 130° 19 kt | 33 | 995.3 | VCTS |
| 22:35 UTC | 17 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 22:40 UTC | 150° 13 kt | 18 | 994.9 | |||
| 22:45 UTC | 150° 11 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 22:46 UTC | 81 | 64 | 150° 10 kt | 19 | 994.9 | |
| 22:53 UTC | 81 | 64 | 150° 12 kt | 19 | 994.6 | |
| 22:55 UTC | 150° 9 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 23:00 UTC | 140° 9 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 23:03 UTC | 81 | 64 | 170° 10 kt | 994.9 | TS | |
| 23:05 UTC | 170° 11 kt | 994.9 | ||||
| 23:10 UTC | 160° 19 kt | 23 | 995.9 | -RA | ||
| 23:15 UTC | 140° | 997 | RA | |||
| 23:20 UTC | 24 kt | 31 | 995.9 | RA | ||
| 23:24 UTC | 70 | 62 | 160° 19 kt | 51 | 995.6 | -TSRA |
| 23:30 UTC | 180° 20 kt | 35 | 997 | -RA | ||
| 23:31 UTC | 72 | 62 | 180° 28 kt | 44 | 996.6 | -TSRA |
| 23:35 UTC | 160° | 997 | -RA | |||
| 23:40 UTC | 130° 18 kt | 27 | 994.6 | RA BR | ||
| 23:45 UTC | 160° 11 kt | 18 | 995.3 | -RA BR | ||
| 23:50 UTC | 140° 18 kt | 995.6 | -RA | |||
| 23:53 UTC | 69 | 65 | 150° 12 kt | 25 | 995.6 | -TSRA |
| 23:55 UTC | 150° 13 kt | 995.6 | -RA | |||
| 00:00 UTC | 150° 10 kt | 995.3 | -RA | |||
| 00:05 UTC | 140° 10 kt | 995.6 | -RA | |||
| 00:10 UTC | 150° 5 kt | 995.9 | -RA | |||
| 00:20 UTC | 170° 16 kt | 26 | 996.3 | RA | ||
| 00:30 UTC | 140° 15 kt | 994.9 | -RA | |||
| 00:35 UTC | 150° 14 kt | 19 | 995.3 | |||
| 00:40 UTC | 140° 10 kt | 16 | 995.9 | -RA | ||
| 00:45 UTC | 130° 11 kt | 995.3 | -RA | |||
| 00:50 UTC | 130° 14 kt | 19 | 995.6 | -RA | ||
| 00:53 UTC | 70 | 62 | 120° 15 kt | 21 | 995.6 | -TSRA |
| 00:55 UTC | 15 kt | 995.6 | -RA | |||
| 01:00 UTC | 150° 10 kt | 995.3 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:16 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 1 W Blunt | Hughes, SD | |
| 22:50 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 7 Ssw Lebanon | Potter, SD | RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 23:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 18 N Holabird | Hyde, SD | ROOF OFF 60X100 FOOT MACHINE SHED, WALL IN ON BARN. RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 23:05 UTC | TORNADO | 18 N Holabird | Hyde, SD | SOUTH OF THE MAIN FARM, CALVING SHEDS WERE PUSHED TO THE NORTH. ON THE MAIN PROPERTY A MACHINE SHED WAS DESTROYED WITH DEBRIS TOSSED ROUGHLY 100 FEET TO THE NORTHEAST. SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED AND A LIVESTOCK TRAILER T |
| 23:17 UTC | TORNADO | 11 Sse Seneca | Faulk, SD | WEST OF SD HWY 47, MINOR ROOF DAMAGE OCCURRED TO A HOUSE, A CALVING SHED WAS PUSHED 10 FEET TO THE NORTHEAST AND SHEET METAL FROM A BARN WAS TOSSED ACROSS THE HIGHWAY TO THE EAST NORTHEAST INTO AN OPEN FIELD. ON THE MAIN |
| 23:19 UTC | TSTM WND GST 69 | 17 W Polo | Hyde, SD | |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Burkmere | Faulk, SD | SEVERAL BUILDINGS DAMAGED. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 23:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ssw Faulkton | Faulk, SD | TWO GREENHOUSES DESTROYED. SOME DAMAGE TO SIDING, A BROKEN WINDOW ON THE HOUSE, AN AUGER TIPPED OVER, A HOPPER BIN DENTED IN AND OTHER EQUIPMENT TIPPED OVER. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 23:25 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | 6 Nnw Tolstoy | Edmunds, SD | |
| 23:25 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Burkmere | Faulk, SD | A POLE BARN WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED WITH ANCHORING POLES PULLED STRAIGHT UP OUT OF THE GROUND, A SECOND WELL ANCHORED OUTBUILDING RIPPED OFF THE FOUNDATION AND A THIRD OUTBUILDING TOSSED. DEBRIS FROM ALL THREE DESTROYED |
| 23:26 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Seneca | Faulk, SD | SEVERAL BUILDINGS DAMAGED. |
| 23:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Faulkton | Faulk, SD | 1 TREE DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 23:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Faulkton | Faulk, SD | POWER POLES DOWN. 3 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN. |
| 23:34 UTC | TSTM WND GST 63 | 4 W Faulkton | Faulk, SD | REPORT FROM PERSONAL WEATHER STATION. |
| 23:34 UTC | TSTM WND GST 67 | Brentwood Colony | Faulk, SD | |
| 23:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ene Canning | Hughes, SD | PARTIAL ROOF OFF BARN, 2 CALVES KILLED, OVERHEAD DOOR ON ANOTHER OUTBUILDING BLOWN IN. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 00:07 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 Nnw Tolstoy | Edmunds, SD | |
| 00:09 UTC | TSTM WND GST 78 | 1 Ene Harrold | Hughes, SD | MESONET STATION 19 HARROLD (SDDOT). |
| 00:34 UTC | TSTM WND GST 76 | 17 W Polo | Hyde, SD | CORRECTS PREVIOUS NON-TSTM WND GST REPORT FROM 17 W POLO. MESONET STATION 215 JCT SD47/SD26 (SDDOT). |
| 00:34 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 76 | 17 W Polo | Hyde, SD | MESONET STATION 215 JCT SD47/SD26 (SDDOT). |
| 00:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ese Burkmere | Faulk, SD | LOCATION ESTIMATED BASED ON STORM CHASER REPORT AND RADAR. |
| 00:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ssw Loyalton | Edmunds, SD | 5 OUTBUILDINGS DAMAGED. APPROXIMATE TIMING. |
| 01:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 12 Ese Canning | Hughes, SD | ELECTRICAL POLE DOWN. 1 INCH HAIL. SEVERAL BROKEN TREE LIMBS. |
| 01:27 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 9 W Orient | Faulk, SD | RADAR ESTIMATED TIME. |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 1 Sw Highmore | Hyde, SD | |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | Highmore | Hyde, SD | |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 3 S Highmore | Hyde, SD | |
| 01:59 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 9 Sw Polo | Hand, SD | 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 2020 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 7, 2020
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 7 | 3:30 PM EDT | EF0 | Columbia, FL | 1.4 | 100 | |||
| June 7 | 3:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Lake, FL | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| June 7 | 4:05 PM EDT | EF0 | Union, FL | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| June 7 | 6:41 PM EDT | EF0 | Lake, FL | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| June 7 | 6:17 PM CDT | EF1 | Faulk, SD | 1.0 | 70 | |||
| June 7 | 6:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Faulk, SD | 0.7 | 150 | |||
| June 7 | 6:45 PM CDT | Unrated | McIntosh, ND | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| June 7 | 7:20 PM CDT | Unrated | Dickey, ND | 0.4 | 30 | |||
| June 7 | 8:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Brown, SD | 5.3 | 50 | |||
| June 7 | 8:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Nelson, ND | 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.