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EF1 tornado in Lawrence County, South Dakota

Tornado June 29, 2018 · Lawrence County, South Dakota

EF1
Rating
18.7 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Crook County, Wyoming → Lawrence County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

The tornado tracked east from Wyoming across the northwestern Black Hills. The tornado snapped trees and caused minor structural damage. The total path length was almost 20 miles.

The wider storm

A tornadic thunderstorm tracked eastward into the northern Black Hills from Wyoming. An EF-1 tornado began in Wyoming and moved across west central Lawrence County into Spearfish Canyon before dissipating. Very large hail to baseball size fell from Lead and Deadwood to Tilford and Piedmont, causing significant damage. The storm continued to be severe as it moved farther east across west central South Dakota, producing wind gusts to 70 mph.

Began near Cheyenne Crossing (44.3530, -104.0556).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 765262. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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