June 16th was a surprise day. We were figuring on a down day or a day that had very marginal potential. By late morning, several storms developed along the east side of a surface low in northern South Dakota. Many were tornado warned. We couldn’t get there in time coming up from Salina, Kansas, but we did manage to catch the storm that was the largest and longest tornado warned in South Dakota. It had beautiful structure and very large hail. Also it produced a large, but weak tornado that ripped through the Menno area causing lots of tree damage and damage to several tin buildings.

2009, hail, June 2009, South Dakota, supercell, tornado