Sioux Falls Tornadoes of September 10

[Steve Holmes]

I am very surprised there has been no discussion of this event. Please help me make sense of what happened.

This page from NWS Sioux Falls says all three EF2s came from a line of severe storms. An EF2 is a pretty strong vortex to come from a squall line, let alone three of them within four minutes. Was this a true QLCS, or did the storms retain enough of their supercellular characteristics to make this happen.

Here's the summary, with a radar loop:

Sioux Falls Tornadoes - September 10, 2019

www.weather.gov

 

[Michael Gavan]

Sorry just saw this. I live just 2 miles from where the EF2 dropped, on the same road where most of the damage occured (41st street). I managed to film only what I can describe as an RFD with 60+ Mph winds. The direction and characteristics were spot on. And I honestly feel like a jerk for standing in my garage with the door open watching it all happen and only minutes later hearing about the damage at places I shop, dine, and visit all of the time. (well used too, many are shut down still). I called it's bluff and luckily I didn't have something really stupid happen to me in this situation. I would call this particular one a solid "Embedded Supercell" situation, on a line that otherwise was producing QLCS tornadoes on occasion.

I don't know of any reliable video of the actual tornado. I would be interested in seeing that.

 

[Steve Holmes]

And I honestly feel like a jerk for standing in my garage with the door open watching it all happen and only minutes later hearing about the damage at places I shop, dine, and visit all of the time.

No reason to feel like a jerk. You had no way of knowing what it was doing. My brother thought a hellacious straight-line wind came through where he was visiting, since those are common where he lives in Kansas. It was the outer circulation of the 2011 Joplin tornado.