National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Areas of Severe Thunderstorms and Excessive Rainfall through This Weekend

A multi-day thunderstorm and heavy rain event will impact the south-central U.S. this Memorial Day weekend. Severe thunderstorms may produce large hail, severe gusts, and a possible tornado or two across portions of the central and southern Plains through Monday. The threat for heavy to excessive rainfall and possible flash flooding will return to the south-central U.S., especially in the Ozarks. Read More >

According to the American Meteorological Society Glossary of Meteorology, a heat burst is a "localized, sudden increase in surface temperature associated with a thunderstorm, shower, or mesoscale convective system, often accompanied by extreme drying."

Indeed, several Mesonet weather stations just northwest of Mobridge, SD (including the Mahto SDSU and McLaughlin+Trail City RWIS stations) recorded sudden increases in temperature and decreases in humidity, along with spikes in wind gusts from 10 pm Friday to 1 am Saturday morning. Notably, the Mahto station rose ~15 degrees in 20 minutes peaking at 96 degrees at 11 pm, and gusted to 62 mph just before at 10:55 pm. Showers falling into the right environment led to this fairly rare phenomenon. See the slides below for more details.