Extreme Heat and Fire Weather Conditions in the West; Heavy Rain in the Southeast; Poor Air Quality

Extreme heat will begin to peak across the Desert Southwest. Multiple days of hot, dry and windy conditions are expected to bring fire weather concerns for portions of the Four Corners region into the central Great Basin and Rockies. Heavy rainfall and a flash flooding threat continues in the Southeast. Poor air quality persists from the Upper Midwest into the Northeast due to wildfire smoke. Read More >

Overview

Thunderstorms developed near an area of low pressure across central South Dakota during the afternoon on Sunday, July 25th, and quickly intensified to severe limits in a favorable environment after becoming supercells (rotating thunderstorms). Despite temperatures in the 90s and even low 100s, these storms produced large to significantly large hail as they tracked to the east and southeast. By sunset, additional thunderstorms developed across west central Minnesota. One of the more prolific supercells produce hail continuously for ~125 miles from Faulk to Codington Counites over an over 3 hour window of time, of up to nearly 4" in diameter along the way. With 19 reports of severe-criteria hail (at least 1" in diameter) across our forecast area, we more than doubled in our total for the entire season in just one day.

Surface observations at 4pm on July 25, 2021 from the Weather Prediction Center

Photos & Video
Radar, Satellite
Storm Reports

Photos & Video


Quarter to golf ball sized hail on the northeast side of Pierre. Photo courtesy of Mikayla Frick	Large hail from 12 miles south of Faulkton. Photo courtesy of Jason Koester	Large hail from 12 miles south of Faulkton. Photo courtesy of Jason Koester	Large hail from 2 miles north of Ashton. Photo courtesy of Garret Knebel


Large hail at Wallace around 9pm. Photo courtesy of Billie and Monica Moshier, relayed on Twitter via Brent Nathaniel	Roughly 3.75" hail at Wallace around 9pm. Photo courtesy of Billie and Monica Moshier, relayed on Twitter via Brent Nathaniel	Large hail west of South Shore. Photo courtesy of Codington County Emergency Manager	Large hail west of South Shore. Photo courtesy of Codington County Emergency Manager


Cumulonimbus of the large-hail producing storm over Faulk County around 7pm

Radar, Satellite


Radar reflectivity from 4pm to 10pm CDT July 25, 2021


GOES-16 visible satellite imagery from 3pm to 910pm CDT July 25, 2021. From CIRA


24 hour max estimated size of hail, showing the long-track nature of storms	Radar reflectivity at 617pm - southern Hughes County	Radar reflectivity at 740pm - northern Spink County	Radar reflectivity at 900pm - northwestern Codington County