June 23, 2010
More on the Bowdle Tornado
Bowdle Tornado (photo by Stuart Surma)
Stuart Surma of Java, South Dakota, was traveling traveling from Aberdeen to Java when he heard a tornado warning for Walworth County on the radio. He could see clouds darkening the sky in the southwest. Before he got to Bowdle, said Stuart, "a tail dipped down out of the 'wall cloud'!" Once it touched down, it traveled for seven or eight miles from the southwest to the northeast gradually becoming a huge storm.
"We drove up to about a mile east of it and then ran back to Bowdle to the "C" Store," Stuart told me by email. "It went whirling by Bowdle within a mile of the town!" According to Stuart, a farm a mile north of Bowdle was "obliterated". Stuart also mentioned a couple of other farms that were affected, as well. He forwarded the three pictures, shown here, which he took through his windshield.
An Ominous Sky (photo by Stuart Surma)
Roiling Clouds (photo by Stuart Surma)
--Mike Crowley
Mike Crowley Wednesday, June 23, 2010