National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Rare Southern U.S. Winter Storm; Dangerous Cold Weather For Much of the Eastern U.S.; Critical Fire Weather for Southern California

A rare winter storm impacting the Southern U.S. will move offshore Wednesday morning. Behind the storm, arctic air will continue encompassing the eastern two-thirds of the Nation with only a slow return to normal temperatures expected by the end of the week. Moderate to strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity will maintain Critical fire weather conditions in southern California into Thursday. Read More >

 

2013 South Dakota Tornadoes

Below is a plot of the tornadoes which occurred in South Dakota in 2013 (click to enlarge):

Below is a brief summary of the 2013 tornado season:

·         2013 was a relatively quiet year with only 14 tornadoes reported across the State

·         Here is the breakdown of 2013 tornadoes by EF-Scale:

o   EF0 = 11

o   EF1 = 3

o   EF2 = 0

o   EF3 = 0

o   EF4 = 0

o   EF5 = 0

·         South Dakota averages about 35 tornadoes per year (based on 2001-2010 data)

·         South Dakota has now seen a below average number of tornadoes since 2010 (click to enlarge)

 

Below is the 10 year total of tornado fatalities by state (2001-2010):

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/ustormaps/2001-2010-fatals.png

 

Fortunately – South Dakota has not had a directly related tornado death since 1999!  Hopefully that trend continues for years to come!