Tornado near Faith rated EF-2 with wind speeds of 118 miles per hour

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Sunday afternoon’s tornado near Faith, SD snapped power poles along U.S. Highway 212 and downed several trees. Members of the National Weather Service office in Rapid City traveled to the impacted area and found damage consistent with 118-mile-per-hour winds, leading to a rating of EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This makes the Faith tornado West River’s strongest since 2022 when two EF-2 tornadoes touched down near Murdo.

Fortunately, no homes or other buildings were impacted by the twister, which was about half the width of a football field. Nevertheless, damage to power poles and trees allowed NWS Rapid City Meteorologist in Charge David Hintz and his survey team to calculate the rating.

“We saw some uprooted trees, we saw some trees that were snapped, we saw some trees that were also twisted as well,” Hintz explained. “And that gave us an indication of what type of wind speeds we were dealing with.”

Hintz mentioned Grand Electric employees were already on the scene Monday repairing damaged power poles. All power infrastructure in the area is back to full functionality. Hintz also said this storm ended up being stronger than he expected, and he said it’s never a bad idea for those in severe weather warnings to take shelter as thunderstorms can intensify quickly.

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