An EF-1 tornado touched down outside of Martin in south western South Dakota on Saturday. The tornado stayed on the ground for about 40 minutes and had measured wind speeds between 85 and 110 mph.
Susan Sanders is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Rapid City. She says this was an unusual storm.
“The storm developed very, very quickly and was pretty much the only storm around, and it wasn’t moving. So, the tornado actually – when it touched down – moved slightly to the northwest,” says Sanders.
Sanders says typically storms move to the northeast or southeast.
She says the impact was limited to some minor structural damage to windows on a house and barn at the edge of the tornado’s path. The storm also blew some grain bins off their foundations.