A destructive outbreak of nine tornadoes struck the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

on May 29, 1953. The worst one was an F5 tornado that hit Fort Rice, North Dakota, destroying multiple structures and causing the majority of the casualties that day. Other strong tornadoes occurred that day, including an F2 tornado that did major damage when it struck

McLaughlin, South Dakota McLaughlin (Lakota: ''matȟó Akíčita or Makáȟleča''; "Bear Soldier") is a city in northeastern Corson County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 663 at the 2010 census. It is the largest city on the Standing Rock Indian Reserv ...

. Overall, the outbreak killed two people, injured 22 others, and caused $827,500 (1953 USD) in damage.

Meteorological synopsis

An unusually strong surface

low-pressure system In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...

moved into northwestern

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

during the afternoon of May 29, 1953. Surface observations indicated that it, along with another nearby low to its southeast, had a pressure lower than . A

dryline A dry line (also called a dew point line, or Marfa front, after Marfa, Texas) is a line across a continent that separates moist air and dry air. One of the most prominent examples of such a separation occurs in central North America, especially T ...

extended from this strong low southward ahead of a

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Norther ...

that curled southwestward while a

warm front A warm front is a density discontinuity located at the leading edge of a homogeneous warm air mass, and is typically located on the equator-facing edge of an isotherm gradient. Warm fronts lie within broader troughs of low pressure than cold fro ...

extended east-northeastward into the

Coteau des Prairies The Coteau des Prairies is a plateau approximately 200 miles in length and 100 miles in width (320 by 160 km), rising from the prairie flatlands in eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa in the United States. ...

of southeastern

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

Behind the surface low, an upper-level low moved northeastward through

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, increasing the pressure gradient over the

Northern Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...

and inducing high wind shear across the area. Temperatures that afternoon reached anywhere from the upper-80s to mid-90s and with dew points from 60-70°F, the atmosphere was ripe for an outbreak of severe thunderstorms.

Confirmed tornadoes

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1953-05-29 Tornado Tornadoes of 1953 Tornadoes in Nebraska Tornadoes in Kansas Tornadoes in Wyoming Tornadoes in North Dakota Tornadoes in South Dakota

Meteorological synopsis

Confirmed tornadoes

See also

Notes

References