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Flooding in the Mississippi Valley; Fire Weather in California; Tropical Cyclone Rafael

A cold front will stall near the Mississippi River Valley today with excessive rainfall bringing areas of flooding over parts of the region. Gusty winds and dry conditions will drive critical to extremely critical fire weather over portions of central and southern California through Thursday. Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for parts of the Florida Keys ahead of Tropical Cyclone Rafael. Read More >

Overview

Three days in a row, our area was affected by severe thunderstorms. On June 11, thunderstorms moved into northwestern SD and northeastern WY from MT. They brought large hail and damaging winds; in particular, Philip received significant wind damage, with roofs being blown off buildings. 

On June 12, another round of thunderstorms brought very large hail and strong winds that damaged areas from northeastern WY to central SD. Belle Fourche received quite a bit of damage from Sunday's storms, which involved wind-driven hail, up to grapefruit size (4 inches). Slightly larger (4.5 inches, softball sized) hail was reported near Wall later.

On June 13, storms started across northeastern WY along a cold front, and traveled through western SD during the evening. The largest hail (the size of a grapefruit) was reported in the Hot Springs/Buffalo Gap area. Later, tennis ball sized hail driven by 90 mph winds caused damage in Kadoka. 

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June 11 storm over Bear Butte (Markus Erk)

 

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