EF2 tornado, Henry, South Dakota, July 27, 2025

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

July 27, 2025

Touchdown

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

Lifted

6:16 PM CDT (23:16 UTC)

On the ground

21 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Codington County

Touchdown point

44.944, -97.378

Lift-off point

44.895, -97.353

Record number

2507271655-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Outside walls toe nailed into baseplate. Constructed in mid to late 70s. Residents were not home at the time of the tornado. One horse killed
• Tree grove to the north of the home. Debris laying to the northwest. Tornado core passed to the southwest of residence.
• buildings quite old and southeast of residence. Tornado core passed to the west
• location where the tornado crossed the road into the farm. Photo is looking south

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

An afternoon thunderstorm developed near the town of Henry and very quickly spun up a violent tornado. This tornado would cause significant damage to a farmstead before dissipating. The storm would go on to produce large hail, up to the size of baseballs near Lake Kampeska, with numerous additional reports of golf-ball sized hail, in and around the city of Watertown. The Watertown Automated Surface Observing System recording a peak wind gust of 71 mph.||Heavy rainfall from persistent re-development of storms over the area into the late evening hours would go on to produce flooding in the Big Sioux basin. The COOP observers in Castlewood, Rauville and Watertown would pick up 5.61, 3.68 and 2.06 inches respectively.

A tornado tracked for nearly four miles over approximately 21 minutes, leaving a path of significant damage. The event began around 5:55 PM CDT when the tornado touched down in an open field between 168th and 169th Streets, just to the west of 442nd Avenue. The tornado initially tracked to the east, and by about 6:02 PM, it crossed 442nd Avenue. The tornado then turned and started tracking south. The core of the tornado passed about 150 yards to the west of a farmstead, but at approximately 6:03 PM, the tornado was close enough to the farm to start causing significant damage. In fact, video evidence shows debris being lofted into the air before the tornado made its closest approach. The main residence was completely destroyed. An attached garage was dislodged and swept clean from its cement foundation; however, a vehicle in the driveway did not move. The remainder of the house lost its entire roof and many exterior walls, though many interior walls remained standing. One outbuilding was completely destroyed, and many others sustained significant damage. Along the southern edge of the property, a line of nine grain bins was completely swept away. The residents were not home at the time of the tornado, but a beloved horse was killed. At 6:06 PM, the tornado crossed 169th Street and continued south through cropland. Aerial photos revealed that between 169th and 170th Streets, the tornado ripped through several rows of erosion shelterbelt trees. Trees in the path were void of branches, snapped at their bases, and in some spots, reduced to nothing more than stubs. Continuing south, the tornado crossed 170th Street around 6:11 PM and continued across a lake and more cropland, eventually crossing 171st Street. By approximately 6:16 PM, the tornado weakened and dissipated just north of 172nd Street, bringing its 21-minute duration to an end. The tornado was rated an EF2 with peak winds estimated at 135 mph.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:54 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:47 UTC and running to 04:10 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Watertown (ATY), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:57 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 2025 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.