Blog Article
July 02, 2026 Severe Weather Recap: SD Tornadoes
July 02, 2026 recap: a 105 mph gust in Huron SD, four tornado reports across eastern South Dakota, grapefruit hail in Iowa, and flooding in WI and MN.
July 02, 2026 Recap: A 105 MPH Gust in Huron and Four Tornadoes Across Eastern South Dakota
Alright y'all, let's talk about what happened yesterday, because eastern South Dakota had itself a day.
The headline number is 105 mph. That was a wind gust measured at Huron Regional Airport (KHON). To put that in plain terms, that is a straight-line convective gust in the same range as a strong tornado, and it did not come from a tornado. That kind of non-tornadic gust is rare. Most severe wind reports top out in the 60 to 80 mph range. A measured 105 is the kind of number that gets meteorologists talking for weeks.
How the day unfolded
The morning started quiet in the northern Plains and busy down south. Early on, spotters and broadcast media were catching waterspouts along the Gulf and Florida coasts. There was a waterspout east of Boynton Beach, Florida just before 7 AM local, another over Lake Borgne near Louisiana late that morning, and one over Sabine Lake near Bridge City, Texas in the afternoon. Those are common summertime features over warm water. They looked dramatic, but they were the appetizer.
The main show fired up over eastern South Dakota in the late afternoon.
- 3:56 PM CDT (19:56 UTC): A storm chaser reported a tornado on the ground 6 miles south of Gann Valley, SD (LSR ID iem_lsr:202607022028-KABR).
- 4:10 PM CDT (20:10 UTC): A second tornado report came in 2 miles east of Gann Valley, backed up by photos on X (iem_lsr:202607022031-KABR).
- 4:30 PM CDT (20:30 UTC): A tornado was sighted by numerous chasers 13 miles west of Wessington Springs, SD (iem_lsr:202607022119-KFSD).
- 6:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC): A fire department reported a tornado on the ground 5 miles southwest of Willow Lake, SD (iem_lsr:202607022236-KABR).
That is four confirmed tornado reports across eastern South Dakota over roughly two and a half hours. These reports came from storm chasers and a fire department. The National Weather Service has not released damage surveys yet, so we do not have official EF ratings or path lengths, and I am not going to make any up. When those surveys come in, we will update.
The wind, the hail, and the rain
Beyond the tornadoes, this system packed several other high-impact hazards.
- Wind: That 105 mph gust at Huron is the standout. It points to a very strong, well-organized convective downdraft.
- Hail: Near Maynard, Iowa, spotters reported 3.5-inch hail. That is grapefruit-sized, a high-end significant hail event. Stones that big fall fast and hard enough to break windshields and dent roofs.
- Rain: Brown County, Wisconsin and Mower County, Minnesota saw life-threatening flash flooding, with rainfall totals reported up to 7.5 inches. That much water in a short window overwhelms creeks and roadways in a hurry.
And it was not just severe storms. Across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, heat index values climbed into the 114 to 120 degree range, with Newark, New Jersey hitting an air temperature of 97 degrees. That is well above where early July usually runs.
What we forecast vs what happened
Here's the honest scorecard. The blog that published this morning was already looking forward to today's Enhanced Risk near Omaha, and it led with that 105 mph Huron gust as the jaw-dropper from the day before. That framing held up. The Huron gust was the story, and the northern Plains delivered on the severe threat.
Where I want to be straight with you: yesterday's biggest tornado action landed in eastern South Dakota, near Gann Valley, Wessington Springs, and Willow Lake. That is a bit north of where today's Enhanced Risk sits. Storms on the Plains this time of year ride the frontal boundary, and that boundary has been sliding south and east day by day. So the threat did not disappear. It shifted, exactly the way the setup suggested it would.
What's coming next
The pattern is on the move, and the focus is shifting south and east.
- Today (Friday): SPC has an Enhanced Risk (Level 3 of 5) from central Nebraska into western Iowa, including Omaha and Council Bluffs, with about 1.9 million people inside it. The main threats are damaging wind, with a 30 percent wind probability and a hatched zone where gusts could top 75 mph, plus large hail up to hen-egg size. A broad Slight Risk stretches east through Chicago, Detroit, and the I-95 corridor.
- Saturday: A Slight Risk covers parts of the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic and the central Great Plains, roughly 50 million people, mostly a damaging wind story.
- Sunday: A Slight Risk focuses on the Mid-Atlantic, from Philadelphia to Washington to Baltimore.
- Rain: WPC has a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over much of Iowa and eastern Nebraska today, so flooding stays on the table where storms train over the same ground.
Looking further out, WPC is flagging a major heat wave building over the South and Southeast next week under strong upper-level ridging. The Northern tier keeps its shot at diurnal storms.
One more note for the sky watchers. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center expects G1 to G2 (Minor to Moderate) geomagnetic storm conditions starting today into tomorrow from a coronal mass ejection that left the sun on June 30. That can mean aurora for the northern tier if skies clear.
Bottom Line
July 2, 2026 was a slow build that turned into a serious northern Plains severe weather day. A 105 mph gust at Huron, four tornado reports across eastern South Dakota, grapefruit hail in Iowa, and flooding rain in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The forecast pattern held up well, and the threat did what these Plains setups do in early July: it rode the front and slid south. Official NWS damage surveys will fill in the tornado ratings over the coming days. For now, the takeaway is simple. When a boundary sits over the northern Plains with high moisture and strong instability, it can produce extremes across every hazard at once, and it did.