Photo of Tornado in Spencer courtesy of Chris Lenz, a storm chaser from Valley,
Event Details
Photo of Tornado in Spencer courtesy of Chris Lenz, a storm chaser from Valley, Nebraska. He was located 4.5 miles east of Spencer looking west.
The Spencer, SD F4 tornado of May 30, 1998 was 1 of 5 tornadoes produced by one supercell that tracked about 30 miles. This destructive tornado had a path length of 14 miles and hit the small town of Spencer (population at the time of 320) destroying most of its 190 buildings. 6 people were killed and 150 were injured. The tornado was estimated to reach a width of a mile.