Tornadoes · United States · South Dakota · 2023

EF0 tornado, Ellsworth Afb, South Dakota, May 6, 2023

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Meade County on May 6, 2023, touching down at 8:08 PM MDT and reaching 20 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
May 6, 2023
Touchdown
8:08 PM MDT (02:08 UTC)
Lifted
8:11 PM MDT (02:11 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Meade County
Touchdown point
44.202, -103.012
Lift-off point
44.202, -103.012
Record number
2305062008-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A boundary moving across southern Meade County produced a brief landspout tornado northeast of Ellsworth Air Force Base.

A landspout tornado formed over rangeland northeast of Ellsworth Air Force Base. It did not cause 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.

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 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 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), 00:00Z

2.1 hours before the tornado, 18 km from the path. May 7, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2023-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 169 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 2440 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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2023-05-07The 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 179 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
169 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
491 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2440 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
187 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.9 hours after it, 18 km from the path. May 7, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2023-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -98294, lifted condensation level 1819 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2023-05-07The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-98294 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1819 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
62 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

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:07 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 6, 2023

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 65:57 AM CDTEF1Acadia Parish, LA5.3751$50,000
May 65:01 PM CDTEF0Deuel, SD0.010
May 65:25 PM CDTEF0Grant, SD0.810
May 65:42 PM CDTEF0Renville, MN1.625$15,000
May 66:18 PM CDTUnratedRenville, MN1.025
May 66:20 PM CDTUnratedLac qui Parle, MN2.325
May 66:31 PM CDTUnratedRenville, MN1.625
May 67:39 PM CDTEF0Grundy, MO0.525
May 68:22 PM CDTEF2Linn, MO12.4250
May 68:56 PM CDTEF1Linn, MO8.5100

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.