Unrated tornado, Henry, South Dakota, June 9, 2026

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 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. Unratedthis tornado

   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, as surveyed

Unrated, preliminary

Date

June 9, 2026

Touchdown

12:06 AM CDT (05:06 UTC)

Lifted

12:07 AM CDT (05:07 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Codington County

Touchdown point

44.881, -97.458

Lift-off point

44.882, -97.458

Surveyed by

NWS ABR

The office's name for it

20260609_Henry

Survey last edited

June 12, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Law enforcement reported a brief tornado in an open field near Henry. Emergency Manager confirmed with land owners and via Search and Rescue drone footage that no damage occurred from the tornado.

Written by NWS ABR in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

A cluster of storms initially generated hail mainly to the size of quarters across portions of central South Dakota, then organized into a line and increased speed. This resulted in high winds across northeast South Dakota during the late evening and early overnight hours. A peak wind gust of 90 mph was recorded by the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) mesonet station 4 miles north of Altamont, with a 78 mph wind gust recorded on a personal weather station 9 miles northwest of Aberdeen, 77 mph on a personal weather station in Faulkton and a 74 mph gust at the SDDOT station near Ree Heights (Hand County). ||Intermittent wind damage was reported across much of northeast South Dakota, with reports of peeled roofs and lost tiles, blown in garages and trees down. In the city of Aberdeen and surrounding area, several of these trees landed on vehicles. The Aberdeen City Forester reported the cost for just tree cleanup on city property (including boulevards) topped out at $14,585. ||Six miles south of Goodwin, multiple irrigation pivots were twisted by intense winds. Major power outages affected 5,849 customers in Brown County, 1,106 in Hamlin County, and 64 in Deuel County.

Law enforcement reported a tornado briefly touched down in an open field near Henry. The Emergency Manager confirmed with land owners and via Search and Rescue drone that no damage had occurred with this tornado.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS ABR issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:54 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:15 UTC and running to 06:53 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 01:04 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.

The Aberdeen radar (KABR), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:03 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 2026 tornado in South DakotaEvery tornado in South Dakota since 1950Warnings in force in South Dakota nowThe forecast where you are

2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.