Dust Storm — Hand, South Dakota

2025-05-12 · Hand, South Dakota

Event narrative

Hand county emergency management reports a reduction in visibility to near zero due to blowing dust and crop debris near Miller and locations around the area. A peak wind gust of 53 mph was recorded near Ree Heights at 10:10 am.

Wider weather episode

Strong south winds, abnormally dry conditions and record temperatures over a 3 to 4 day period resulted in wildfires and blowing dust.

On Saturday, May 10th, temperatures topped out in the mid and upper 80s with peak wind gusts between 30 and 40 mph. An issue with a train caused multiple small fires along 5 miles of track that parallels US Highway 14 in Hughes county, mainly near the town of Blunt.

On Sunday, May 11th, temperatures topped out in the upper 80s to mid 90s, with record highs set in Sisseton and Mobridge. Wind gusts peaked at 60 mph at the Groton South Dakota State University mesonet station, with a vast majority of weather stations across the area seeing gusts top out over 50 mph. Blowing dust was also evident on satellite across the James valley region, however in Hand county it was particularly notable with commuters and law enforcement reporting visibility down to zero at times. A fire developed on the edge of the town of Claremont and would go on to burn about 80 acres. Damage to power lines as a result of this fire would go on to cause an outage to 245 customers in Day county. A second fire, 6 miles southeast of Glenham would go on to burn 859 acres of mostly farm and pasture land, running north northeast for 3.25 miles.

Monday, May 12th, was another day with strong winds of 45 to 55 mph, and temperatures topping out in the upper 80s to mid 90s. These strong winds resulted in zero visibility for portions of Hand county due to blowing dust.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1251531. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.