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Hail in Clay County, South Dakota
Hail May 31, 2026 · Clay County, South Dakota
Where the report was made, with tornadoes recorded within 15 miles over the years.
The wider storm
A trough lifted through the western High Plains as a weak convergence boundary drifted eastward into southeast South Dakota during the late afternoon. Near the boundary, a diurnally destabilized air mass focused convective development in a fairly weak shear environment across the lower James River Valley. Thunderstorms largely produced large hail up to ping-pong ball size during periods of stronger updrafts within the storm clusters. Shear concentrated in lower levels and storm interactions combined to produce several brief tornadoes in southeast South Dakota. Slow moving storms also produced spotty heavy rainfall, some of which that fell on areas that received heavy rainfall west of Sioux Falls in the previous night.
Began near Wakonda (43.0100, -97.1100).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1344125. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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