The storms that did the damage were wind
The 2001 downburst hit the north side hardest, from North Sioux City and Riverside out to the Plymouth County line, with the worst of it a strip three or four miles long and two or three blocks wide. On December 15, 2021 — in December — the city recorded an 82 mph thunderstorm gust, and the Sioux Falls weather office issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in December for the first time since its records began in 1986. On May 17, 2026, a tornado was photographed near Whispering Creek, gusts of 60 to 80 mph ran from near Sioux City and Salix toward Kingsley, and big branches came down across Morningside.


