Thunderstorm Wind — Union, South Dakota

2025-06-02 · near Junction City, Union, South Dakota

Event narrative

A machine shed was destroyed with debris blown across Burbank road. A few large limbs were broken off trees. A few grain bins were dented by the wind.

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 → (42.7200, -96.7700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1278158. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.