Thunderstorm Wind — Hamlin, South Dakota

2013-06-21 · near Stone Bridge, Hamlin, South Dakota

Event narrative

Severe tree and structural damage occurred on Lake Poinsett with ninety mph winds. A woman was killed and her husband was seriously injured when their lake house was destroyed. A man was also hospitalized for electric shock.

Wider weather episode

A strong warm front along with very unstable air and strong deep layer winds brought several supercell thunderstorns along with a damaging line of thunderstorms/bow echo to parts of central and northeast South Dakota during the afternoon hours. Damaging winds up to 90 mph uprooted large trees and caused considerable structural and crop damage and loss of power to those in it's path. The worst wind damage was located at Lake Poinsett, Watertown, and Milbank. A woman was killed and her husband was seriously injured on Lake Poinsett when their lake house was destroyed. Numerous trees were downed along with many structures damaged or destroyed. Many trees had fallen onto homes, cabins, and trailers. The bowling alley in Clear Lake lost its roof along with numerous pole barns being destroyed along the storms path. Thousands of people were also left without power. Four tornado touchdowns occurred along with hail up to the size of softballs. Isolated flash flooding also occurred. Codington, Hamlin, Grant, and Deuel counties were all declared in a Federal Disaster Declaration. Total damage estimates were around 1,100,000 dollars.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.5753, -97.0412)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 464576. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.