What you need to know

Two storm chasers confirmed a brief elephant trunk tornado early Monday morning approximately 5 miles east-northeast of Sorum, South Dakota. The tornado has fully dissipated. The event was part of a widespread severe weather day across the northern Plains that produced 18 hail reports and 47 wind reports spanning 12 states.

The Sorum tornado

According to a local storm report submitted to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down at approximately 0136 UTC (7:36 PM CDT Sunday evening) about 5 miles east-northeast of Sorum, South Dakota. Two storm chasers visually confirmed the brief elephant trunk tornado before it fully dissipated.

The time was estimated based on storm chaser reports and radar analysis. No EF rating has been assigned at this time, and no damage reports have been associated with the tornado.

An elephant trunk tornado is a type of condensation funnel that remains narrow and rope-like throughout its lifespan, resembling an elephant's trunk. These tornadoes are often brief and relatively weak, though they are still capable of producing localized damage.

Broader severe weather context

The Sorum tornado was one small piece of a much larger severe weather event that unfolded across the northern Plains and beyond on Sunday into early Monday.

South Dakota bore the brunt of the severe weather, accounting for the single tornado report and 13 of the 18 hail reports. The largest hail—1.75 inches in diameter, roughly the size of a golf ball—fell in multiple locations including Pactola Reservoir, an area 7 miles east-southeast of Fairburn, and 10 miles south-southwest of Reva.

Montana also saw significant hail, with quarter-size (1.00 inch) hail reported in Kremlin on two separate occasions, confirmed by pictures shared on social media. North Dakota recorded hail up to 1.50 inches near Medora, with one observer noting "lots of dimes and nickels... and a few quarters."

Wind the dominant threat

While hail and an isolated tornado made headlines, damaging winds were the day's most widespread hazard. The National Weather Service received 47 wind reports across Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

The strongest gust—75 mph—was recorded at Malta, Montana by an automated weather observing station. Other notable gusts included:

  • 73 mph at War Horse Mesonet, 8 miles north of Tiegen, Montana
  • 72 mph at a mesonet station on the Causeway, 18 miles north-northeast of Callao, Utah
  • 67 mph at multiple Montana locations including Winifred Airport and a sensor 11 miles south of Rudyard

In Montana, a photo shared on social media showed a combine header damaged by thunderstorm winds near Hogeland. The damage occurred around 2255 UTC, with nearby stations recording sustained high winds exceeding 58 mph for at least 10 minutes.

Tree damage was reported across the South as well. In Louisiana, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office reported a tree down along Esterbrook Road off Louis Hoover Lane near Ponchatoula, and emergency management reported a tree down on a powerline in Covington. In South Carolina, a tree became entangled in utility wires at the intersection of Hawthorn Drive and Old Cedar Loop near Litchfield Beach.

What drove Sunday's severe weather

According to the Storm Prediction Center's Day 1 Convective Outlook, a mid-level shortwave trough over Alberta and Saskatchewan moved eastward across the Canadian prairie provinces, bringing moderately strong flow aloft and multiple mesoscale convective vortices to influence the northern Plains and Upper Midwest.

The SPC noted that "widely scattered thunderstorms should develop by late afternoon or early evening within a moist/unstable airmass near an eastward-moving front and weak surface wave across central/eastern ND." Deep-layer shear of around 35-45 knots supported supercells initially, with a large hail threat before storms evolved into clusters capable of producing scattered severe and damaging winds.

Farther south across the Black Hills and western Nebraska, high-based thunderstorms formed by late afternoon and early evening near a surface front. The SPC forecast that "strengthening and sufficient veering of winds with height through mid levels should support initial supercells capable of large hail, prior to a clustering of these southeastward-moving thunderstorms."

This forecast verified across South Dakota, where the Sorum tornado and widespread hail reports occurred.

No watches were active

Despite the widespread severe weather, no tornado or severe thunderstorm watches were in effect at the time of this report. The storms developed in an environment where severe weather was anticipated but did not meet the threshold for watch-level coverage.

This highlights an important reality of severe weather forecasting: not all tornadoes occur under watches. Localized, brief tornadoes—especially those associated with marginal supercells or landspouts—can develop quickly in environments with modest instability and shear.

Looking ahead

As of Monday morning, the Storm Prediction Center has issued a Slight Risk for severe thunderstorms across parts of the northern Plains, Upper Midwest, central High Plains, lower Mississippi Valley, central Gulf Coast, and coastal Carolinas for today. Severe thunderstorms capable of producing large hail and damaging winds remain possible, particularly across the Dakotas and northwest Minnesota.

The threat will shift eastward through the week as the upper-level pattern evolves. Residents across the northern Plains should continue to monitor forecasts and have multiple ways to receive warnings.

VORTEX is a free web app at vortexintel.app that monitors severe weather nationwide. Pro ($4.99/month) places phone calls to your phone when a tornado or flash flood warning is issued for a location you care about — calls can ring through Do Not Disturb once you enable Emergency Bypass for the number, unlike most third-party app notifications.