National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Areas of Severe Thunderstorms and Excessive Rainfall through This Weekend

Severe thunderstorms are expected across portions of the central into southern Plains into Sunday, with large hail and severe gusts the main threats. The threat for heavy to excessive rainfall and possible flash flooding will return to the south-central U.S. Friday into this weekend. Read More >

Overview

On the evening of July 11th, strong storms developed along a front and tracked across parts of eastern South Dakota. The strongest storms produced large hail and damaging winds. The hardest hit area was around Watertown, SD where hail the size of baseballs fell. There was also a 75 mph wind gust recorded at the Watertown Regional Airport, as well as locally torrential rainfall.

Image
Left: Severe Thunderstorm Reports from http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/gmf.php?rpt=170711_rpts_filtered

Right: Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. Data courtesy of Vaisala - U.S. National Lightning Detection Network

nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.
nws logo