South Dakota Tornadoes
| Year | Tornadoes | Deathes | Injuries | Cost Adjusted |
| 1950 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6,561 |
| 1951 | 2 | 0 | 5 | - |
| 1952 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 119,450 |
| 1953 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 955,196 |
| 1954 | 16 | 0 | 4 | 489,094 |
| 1955 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 149,854 |
| 1956 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 65,164 |
| 1957 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 867,599 |
| 1958 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5,471 |
| 1959 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 331,441 |
| 1960 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 657,614 |
| 1961 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 1,718,628 |
| 1962 | 38 | 0 | 43 | 12,010,854 |
| 1963 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1,142,449 |
| 1964 | 32 | 0 | 13 | 6,135,816 |
| 1965 | 63 | 2 | 3 | 11,278,741 |
| 1966 | 30 | 3 | 12 | 1,249,342 |
| 1967 | 27 | 0 | 15 | 4,942,226 |
| 1968 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 545,220 |
| 1969 | 30 | 0 | 18 | 1,249,831 |
| 1970 | 31 | 1 | 1 | 41,362,144 |
| 1971 | 47 | 0 | 3 | 409,924 |
| 1972 | 31 | 0 | 1 | 548,480 |
| 1973 | 28 | 2 | 21 | 4,084,597 |
| 1974 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 747,592 |
| 1975 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 807,027 |
| 1976 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 280,659 |
| 1977 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 842,751 |
| 1978 | 28 | 0 | 15 | 1,214,953 |
| 1979 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 29,030,992 |
| 1980 | 52 | 0 | 0 | 174,635 |
| 1981 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 591,404 |
| 1982 | 33 | 0 | 4 | 377,458 |
| 1983 | 26 | 0 | 4 | 1,978,782 |
| 1984 | 32 | 0 | 2 | 1,903,752 |
| 1985 | 55 | 0 | 0 | 1,698,983 |
| 1986 | 34 | 0 | 0 | 1,981,033 |
| 1987 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 155,887 |
| 1988 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1,337 |
| 1989 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 267,773 |
| 1990 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1,209,743 |
| 1991 | 34 | 0 | 25 | 1,765,032 |
| 1992 | 41 | 0 | 9 | 18,430,448 |
| 1993 | 85 | 0 | 15 | 15,160,980 |
| 1994 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 251,787 |
| 1995 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10,375 |
| Total | 1149 | 11 | 243 | 169,209,104 |
| Avg/year | 25 | 0 | 5 | 3,678,460 |
Compared with other States, South Dakota ranks number 10 for frequency of Tornadoes, 28 for number of deaths, 29 for injuries and 27 for cost of damages. When we compare these statistics to other States by the frequency per square mile, South Dakota ranks, number 22 for the frequency of tornadoes, number 31 for fatalities, number 35 for injuries per area and number 31 for costs per area. Based on data from 1950 - 1995.
South Dakota in 1970 had a population of 666,257 and between 1950 and 1995 had 1,149 tornadoes. This ranks the State number 10 in tornadoes by State. The population in 1970 divided by the number of tornadoes equals 580 This ranks South Dakota number 1 in the ratio of tornadoes to population. South Dakota had 11 fatalities between 1950 and 1995. Compared to other states it ranked 28 The risk of death by population in any one year is 1 in 2,725,597 This ranks South Dakota as number 21 for the risk of death by tornado . Between 1950 and 1995 the state had 243 injuries involving tornadoes. This ranks the state number 29 among the States for injury. The risk of injury in any one year is one in 123,381 When we divide the population by the number of injuries, the State ranks number 21 The total cost of tornadoes between 1950 and 1995 was $169,209,104.00 This ranks the state number 27 The cost per person for tornadoes, in the state per year, is $ 5.64 This ranks the State number 7 In costs for tornadoes per person
We encourage you to post your tornado stories, questions, updates, reports on our South Dakota message board.
Visit our South Dakota Disaster Center Page during any disaster for links to the best internet disaster resources for the State of South Dakota.
For national disaster information and links to the hundreds of web pages on our site visit our index page.
Our special Tornado pages can be reached through The Disaster Center Tornado page.