Thunderstorm Wind — Buffalo, South Dakota

2015-06-20 · near Ft Thompson, Buffalo, South Dakota

Event narrative

One-hundred mph winds or higher damaged or destroyed several homes, flipped many campers, and downed power lines and trees. Several trees fell onto homes. One man died in a trailer home that was flipped.

Wider weather episode

Two rounds of severe weather developed across central South Dakota during the afternoon and late evening hours. The first round of thunderstorms developed during the early afternoon hours of June 19th and quickly produced hail up to two inches in diameter. The thunderstorms proceeded to back build and train over the same areas for the next five hours finally exiting Hand county in the late afternoon. As a result, 2 to 6 inches of rain had fallen causing flash flooding in northern Hyde and Hand counties. Flooded areas and creeks remained for the next few days.

The second round of thunderstorms developed late in the evening in western South Dakota transitioning into a widespread wind event as they moved quickly southeast into central South Dakota. During the event, winds from 60 to over 100 mph were measured with Jones, Lyman, and Buffalo counties being the hardest hit. The squall line entered Jones county around midnight and by 1230 am CDT, several semi trucks had been blown over, two machine sheds were destroyed, power poles and lines were snapped, numerous billboards and road signs were damaged, trailers were flipped over, a grain elevator bin's roof was blown off and side caved in, and many trees were downed. Much of the damage occurred in Okaton, Murdo, and Draper and along Interstate-90.

As the storms moved through Lyman County, they damaged several structures, downed power lines and poles, flipped a pickup truck, along with causing expansive tree damage. In Buffalo county, the storms immediately impacted Fort Thompson, where campers were flipped, structures were damaged, and many trees were downed. Also, in Fort Thompson was the destruction of a trailer house which led to a fatality. The storm then impacted the rest of Buffalo county resulting in the destruction of several grain bins, a hay shed, along with taking the roof off of a hangar near Gann Valley before continuing east of the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.0500, -99.4100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 588223. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.