Two tornadoes touched down in northeast South Dakota over the weekend. The area also saw heavy rains, and street flooding in some places.
Dave Hintz is a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Aberdeen. He says Saturday night’s tornadoes did not cause any injuries, but they did cause a bit of damage.
“We had one minor tornado that touched down in Faulk County, northeast of Faulkton, did some minor tree damage, tipped over an aluminum trailer that we had seen,” Hintz says. “Then we had another confirmed tornado that occurred about 3 and a half miles northeast of Ipswich. This one actually did a little bit more damage. Damaged a farmhouse, machine shed, some flying debris damaged a tractor there, there was a damaged grain bin. So a little more damage with that one as it came through.”
Hintz says the tornado near Faulkton was an EF-0, while the tornado near Ipswich was rated EF-1 with winds around 90 miles an hour. He says some areas in the northeast part of the state also received three to five inches of rain within a couple of hours, which overwhelmed some storm drainage systems and caused water in basements and minor street flooding. Some county roads were also under water. But, Hintz says, the drainage systems caught up and were able to evacuate the water before long.