Thunderstorm Wind — Brookings, South Dakota

2025-08-16 · near Aurora, Brookings, South Dakota

Event narrative

Thunderstorm wind gusts blew numerous items off a deck.

Wider weather episode

A weak wave lifting out of the central Rockies aided in the initiation of a forward propagating Mesoscale Convective System from the lee of the Black Hills southward into the Nebraska Panhandle. With abundant MUCAPE up to nearly 4000 J/kg and DCAPE up to 1500 J/kg, but deep-layer shear only around 20-25 knots, storms retained a somewhat outflow dominant character while on an east-northeast trek. Winds were generally from 60 to 80 mph with significant damage to trees and a few structures along the track of the system north of Interstate 90 into southwest Minnesota. Around 600 customers were without power across Jerauld, Sanborn and Kingsbury Counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.2800, -96.6900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1290636. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.