TornadoLookup

Home / South Dakota / Lincoln

EF0 tornado in Lincoln County, South Dakota

Tornado July 28, 2025 · Lincoln County, South Dakota

EF0
Rating
3.3 mi
Path length
30 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Drone images confirmed what was observed on Copernicus Sentinel data 2025 with a narrow path of downed crops, which started around 8 miles east-southeast of Davis west of 486th Avenue around one-third of a mile south of 287th Street. The tornado raced southeast for a little less than 2 miles before it caused some minor tree damage on a farmstead along 469th Avenue north of 289th Street. The tornado continued southeast for another minute or so before lifting just west of 470th Avenue around one-quarter of a mile north of 290th Street. The tornado was rated EF0 with an estimated maximum wind gust of 85 mph. The average path width was 20 yards.

The wider storm

Two distinct supercell clusters developed across central South Dakota during the late afternoon of July 28 within a highly unstable environment (MUCAPE up to 5000 J/kg) ahead of an eastward advancing surface front. The southern supercell cluster produced three tornadoes across Gregory County, the strongest of which was rated EF2.

Scattered severe wind gusts were reported across southeast South Dakota as the thunderstorms moved east before the two clusters merged near and south of Sioux Falls. Aided by increasing deep layer shear from the north, a linear structure rapidly developed with a derecho racing eastward into northwest Iowa. Winds gusted from 80 to 100 mph along the derecho's path with widespread tree and structural damage across the area. In addition, three embedded short-lived tornadoes were documented within the line of thunderstorms.

Began near Lennox Skie Arpt (43.2240, -96.8500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1288207. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.