Blog Article
August 23, 2026 Severe Weather Recap: SD Tornado & MT Gust
Full recap of August 23, 2026 severe weather: a brief Sorum, SD tornado, a 75 mph Montana gust, flash flooding back east, and how the forecast held up.
August 23, 2026 Severe Weather Recap: A Brief Twister, a Big Gust, and Water Everywhere
Y'all, August 23 was one of those days where the weather map earned its keep. It wasn't a single big outbreak. It was three or four separate stories happening at once, coast to coast, and by the time the sun came up on the 24th we had a confirmed tornado report, a 75 mph wind gust, water rescues in two states, and a new tropical storm on the books.
Let's start with the headline moment. Just before dark Sunday evening, two storm chasers caught a brief elephant trunk tornado on the ground 5 miles east-northeast of Sorum, South Dakota, out in Perkins County. It came down, it did its thing, and it dissipated fast. No word of damage tied to it in what we've got, and that tracks. These quick spin-ups out on the open plains often touch down in grass and nothing else. Still, it was a confirmed tornado, and that's what triggers a day like this getting the recap treatment instead of just another line in the weather log.
How the Day Unfolded
The day actually started before most folks in the East were even awake. Heavy rain overnight set off Flash Flood Warnings and honest to goodness water rescues in Chester, Pennsylvania and Stratford, Connecticut, with more urban flooding reported in New York City and up in Chautauqua County, New York. Out west at the same time, National Park Service staff confirmed active flash flooding in Grand Wash inside Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. Slot canyons and desert washes don't need much rain to turn dangerous fast, and that's exactly what happened there.
By afternoon, the action shifted south and east for a stretch. Severe storms rolling through Louisiana knocked down trees onto power lines near Covington, and reports came in of trees down along Esterbrook Road near Ponchatoula and out toward Robert, Louisiana. Down in South Carolina, a tree came down entangled in utility wires near Litchfield Beach.
Then the real engine of the day fired up. The Storm Prediction Center's Severe Thunderstorm Watches 618, 619, 620, and 621 went up across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, and North Dakota as a shortwave trough pushed in from the Canadian Rockies. That's the setup that produced our two biggest measured numbers of the day. An AWOS station near Malta, Montana recorded a 75 mph thunderstorm wind gust, strong enough that NWS Glasgow tagged their warnings Destructive and Considerable, which is language they don't hand out lightly. Mesonet stations across Montana, Utah, and Texas picked up gusts in the 65 to 73 mph range on top of that.
As those storms pushed into South Dakota after dark, that's when the Sorum tornado touched down. Later that same evening, Utah picked up its own round of wind damage, with shingles blown off a roof near Hyde Park and tree limbs snapped near Logan.
What We Confirmed
- One tornado report: brief elephant trunk tornado, 5 ENE Sorum, SD, confirmed by two storm chasers, since dissipated
- A measured 75 mph wind gust at an AWOS station near Malta, Montana
- Destructive and Considerable wind-tagged Severe Thunderstorm Warnings issued by NWS Glasgow for northeastern Montana
- Wind damage reports (trees on power lines, downed limbs) in Covington, Ponchatoula, and Robert, Louisiana
- Tree down in utility wires near Litchfield Beach, South Carolina
- Wind damage (broken limbs, roof shingles) near Logan and Hyde Park, Utah
- Water rescues and Flash Flood Warnings in Chester, PA and Stratford, CT, plus urban flooding in NYC and Chautauqua County, NY
- Confirmed active flash flooding in Grand Wash, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
- Tropical Storm Iselle officially formed in the Eastern Pacific as the ninth named storm of the season
- Tropical Storm Moke tracked west, south of Hawaii
Forecast Versus Reality
Here's where I want to be straight with y'all. Our forecast heading into the 23rd flagged the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains as the main severe weather corridor for the stretch, and that part held up. The Malta, Montana gust and the general pattern across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, the Dakotas, all of that lined up with what watches 618 through 621 were built for. The tropical side of the forecast held up too. We'd been tracking Iselle strengthening in the Eastern Pacific and Moke sliding south of Hawaii, and both played out almost exactly as expected.
What the forecast didn't put much emphasis on was tornado potential. The threat language ahead of time was built around large hail and damaging wind, not spin-up tornadoes, so the brief Sorum touchdown was more of a bonus hazard than something we called days out. That's honest meteorology. Isolated tornado threats in these northern plains setups are notoriously hard to pin down to the mile, and a quick elephant trunk tornado caught by chasers is exactly the kind of event that can slip in under a wind and hail focused outlook.
The other miss, if you want to call it that, was how quiet our forecast discussion was on the overnight Northeast flooding. Chester and Stratford's water rescues and the New York City area urban flooding weren't front and center in what we published the day before. The heavy rain threat was there in the background, but the water rescues were more significant than the lead-up coverage suggested.
What's Next
Heading into today, August 24, the Storm Prediction Center has a Slight Risk of severe thunderstorms up again, this time split between the Dakotas, northwest Minnesota, and the central High Plains on one side, and the middle Gulf Coast and coastal Carolinas on the other. That's almost the same footprint we just walked through, so don't be surprised if we're back here tomorrow with a similar recap. The Weather Prediction Center also has Marginal excessive rainfall risk areas working across the western and central US.
On the tropical side, Iselle and Moke have both weakened back to tropical depression status, while Tropical Storm Lala is now the strongest named system out there with 63 mph winds in the Central Pacific, well north of Pearl and Hermes Atoll and not threatening land. The National Hurricane Center is also watching Invest 95AL in the Atlantic, a few hundred miles southeast of Bermuda with a 50 percent chance of development over the next couple of days, plus a couple of low-percentage disturbances trailing behind it in the Eastern Pacific.
Bottom Line
August 23 was a multi-region severe weather day more than a single big outbreak day. The forecast nailed the broad strokes, the Northern Rockies and Plains severe corridor and the tropical development in the Pacific, but the specific tornado near Sorum and the scope of the Northeast flash flooding were the parts that came in heavier than the headline forecast suggested. That's a good reminder that wind and hail focused outlooks can still hide a quick tornado, and that overnight flash flood setups deserve just as much attention as the afternoon severe storms everybody watches for.