Hail — Union, South Dakota

2025-06-02 · near Elk Pt, Union, South Dakota

Event narrative

Periodic quarter to ping pong ball size hail occurred around Elk Point for a few minutes. Hail of varying size accumulated to several inches.

Wider weather episode

Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed late afternoon along a slow-moving frontal boundary. Even with fairly weak deep-layer shear, strong instability resulted in large hail. Drier air and advancing cold pools later in development produced spotty damaging winds. High moisture content and slowly progressing storms also produced some locally heavy rainfall with rates briefly from 3 to 5 inches per hour.

A particularly intense and long-lived supercell developed near Vermillion and tracked southeast, generating hail up to golf ball size and a swath of damaging winds along Burbank Road up to 85 mph.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.6900, -96.6900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1278139. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.