June 9, 2001 Windstorm
Philip and Wanblee, SD - A severe windstorm struck portions of western South Dakota on Saturday evening. Wind gusts to 80 MPH were estimated. Around 7:00 PM MDT, the greatest damage occurred in Philip and Wanblee, SD as the storms trekked across all of South Dakota. In Wanblee, an eyewitness saw a grain bin and sheep "rolling" up a hillside on the east side of town. Check out the radar animation.
A National Weather Service Team from Rapid City, SD surveyed the damage on Sunday, June 10th, 2001. We found damage in Philip and Wanblee to be consistent with strong straight line winds. No injuries were reported in either location. However, a minor injury was reported at a Badlands National Park Campground near Interior.
On June 9th, 2001, thunderstorms began over northeastern Wyoming and moved into the Black Hills shortly before 5:00 PM MDT. A surface boundary moving south into the Rapid City area intersected the energy from the Black Hills storms. Explosive severe thunderstorm growth occurred just 3 miles southwest of Rapid City. At least golf ball size hail was reported. The storm continued to intensify and moved toward New Underwood. The radar image below shows the severe thunderstorm beginning to producing copious amounts of wind evident by the fine blue line nearest the bottom-most arrow. This is a tell-tale sign of strong wind.
Around 7:00 PM MDT on the image below, you can see two arrows. The top arrow is pointing toward Philip, SD. The bottom arrow is pointing toward Wanblee, SD. At this time, Philip and Wanblee were buffeted by wind estimated at 80 MPH or better. The Philip windstorm was accompanied by torrential rain, while the Wanblee windstorm was accompanied by a few drops of rain. In Philip damaging winds were from the southwest and in Wanblee, they were from the northwest. Considerable blowing dust was observed in both locations. Between these South Dakota towns, isolated damage was found.
Crazy Horse School - Wanblee, SD
Roof Damage - Wanblee, SD
Grain Bin - Philip, SD
Airport - Philip, SD
Interstate 90 runs from Wall to Kadoka to Belvidere
