Two confirmed tornadoes touched down in South Dakota Sunday night. The tornadoes were part of severe storms that went through the state Sunday evening and overnight. One tornado hit Campbell County in north central South Dakota. Troy Kleffman with the National Weather Service in Aberdeen says the storm formed what’s known as a landspout.
According to Kleffman, “They tend to form in thunderstorms that are considered non-super-cellular. Super cell storms tend to have a lot of rotation in them in the mid-levels, and that’s how we typically get our tornadoes across the plains. But, every once in a while we have a ripe set-up for what we call landspouts—they’re usually from high-based storms that don’t have a lot of rotation in them; typically, they don’t cause much in the way of damage, they’re usually pretty weak.”
A second tornado hit land in Todd County, close to the Nebraska border. Rapid City meteorologist Susan Sanders says this event was definitely the work of a super cell storm.
“We haven’t gotten any damage reports from that one," Sanders says. "It's definitely a tornado, we’ve got some pictures of it. That area is fairly open, so not a whole lot of damage likely. At most, maybe some trees or power poles.”
Sanders says there was a possible third tornado in Tripp County, southwest of Winner. She says crews will spend today working on confirmation.