Weather History Archive

Weather History - June 17th

June 17th, 1944:

Six estimated F2 or stronger tornadoes trekked across Faulk, Codington, Brown, Day, Grant, and Roberts County in South Dakota and Big Stone in Minnesota. The first tornado touched down at approximately 3:30 pm CST in Faulk County. The estimated F2 tornado destroyed all buildings except the house on a farm 7 miles northeast of Faulkton. The next tornado occurred at 4:00 pm CST in Codington County. The tornado damaged barns and tossed cattle and a truck into Grass Lake near Wallace. At about the same time, a tornado moved northeast from just northeast of Warner and crossed the town of Bath in Brown County. The storm killed two people in the destruction of their home and injured another twelve.

Twenty homes in Bath were damaged. A brick school had its upper story torn off. Another tornado moved through Codington County at 4:45 pm CST, killing three and injuring twenty-five. This F4 strength tornado moved northeast from two miles northeast of Henry, passing over Long Lake and ending 2 miles northwest of Florence. The funnel was described as snake-like over Long Lake and massive as it swept through five farms southwest of Florence. The storm killed over 100 heads of cattle and damaged about a dozen homes. In Day County, an estimated F2 moved due north from 4 miles south of Webster, ending 2 miles northeast of Roslyn. This storm passed two miles east of Webster, where barns were destroyed and livestock was killed on a half-dozen farms. At 5:15 pm CST, a monster storm moved northeast from 5 miles south of Summit, passing 3 miles south of Wilmot and ending about 3 miles east of Beardsley, Minnesota. The massive tornado had an estimated width of 1500 yards and traveled 30 miles. Along the path, eight people were killed, and another forty-three were injured. Farm devastation southwest and south of Wilmot was as complete as possible, with some farms reportedly left without debris on the property. About 15 farms in South Dakota reported F3- F5 damage. From this day, the Red Cross counted 13 dead and 560 people injured across the state.

June 17th, 2010:

This day will go down as the day with the most outstanding single-day tornado total in Minnesota history. The 3 EF4 tornadoes in Minnesota were the first tornadoes EF4 or stronger in this state since the Granite Falls tornado on July 25th, 2000. This outbreak produced the highest number of tornadoes rated EF4 or greater in one day in Minnesota since the Black Sunday tornado outbreak on April 30th, 1967. The four EF4 tornadoes across the Upper Midwest on June 17th, 2010 (3 in MN and 1 in ND) were the most outbreaks in the U.S. since the "Super Tuesday Outbreak" on February 5-6, 2008. The number of tornado fatalities (4) on this day was the highest in Minnesota since July 5th, 1978. Click HERE for an NWS summary.