131 mph Straight Line Winds Knock Down Wind Turbines, Silos, Barns in S. Dakota

thinc.blog ^ | June 29, 2026 | greenman3610

[Red Badger]

THIS IS INSANE! 130 MPH winds destroyed windmills in South Dakota this morning. This is very rare. We hardly ever see windmills take this much damage from straight-line damaging winds. But when you push over 110 MPH winds, it becomes a lot easier for the windmills to crumble. Photos via Storm Chaser Jakob McMillin

Accuweather describes set up that will make for severe storms all week long More reports of widespread damage from tornado-force straight line winds below.

Ag Week:

A devastating windstorm ripped through central South Dakota on the morning of June 29.

According to the South Dakota State University Mesonet, at 6:25 a.m. Monday, wind gusts were reported at 131 miles per hour, with the wind speed at 76 miles per hour. Rainfall totaled 1.64 inches.

Videos of the aftermath in Highmore show extensive damage to the community. Destroyed buildings and grain bins and standing water could be seen throughout a large section of the town following the storm.

Grain bins in Highmore, S. D.

[Mark]

Global Warming doing its’ thing.

[RckyRaCoCo]

bird karma

[03A3]

The annual Varmageddon this year was a real challenge.

[Red Badger]

God really doesn’t like windmills messing up His beautiful creations.......................

[V_TWIN]

The only good wind turbine is a dismantled one as far as I’m concerned.

[V_TWIN]

That pic of the crumpled wind turbines is a great visual for renewable energy in general.

IOW.....a shambles

[Vaduz]

Looks like the Dutch had the right idea after all.

[John Milner]

If it’s a straight line wind it’s from a single direction. So, yes they would all fall the same direction.

And I’m assuming they are uniformly engineered so their failure/weakest structural point on the support column would be the same for each.

So I’d say it’s reasonable that the photos are undoctored.

[DungeonMaster]

A 130 mph wind has 1000 times more energy than a 13 mph wind.

[woodbutcher1963]

131 mph is a class 3 hurricane.

Hurricane Hugo pretty much destroyed coastal SC based on sustained winds around 130.
I am not a proponent of wind turbines, but not much stands up to those winds. Unless it is made out of concrete.

[Jacquerie]

It wasn’t that long ago when support for windmills was all the rage at FR.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL!

(Finalist — most annoying invention in the history of mankind)

[xp38]

Not much of a wind turbine, really. is it?

[Tell It Right]

It wasn’t that long ago when support for windmills was all the rage at FR.

Decentralized solar owner here.
Was the FR support for windmills for the giant ones like in this article, or for small ones a homeowner sets up for himself to make himself more self-reliant? I'm 100% for the latter in a free market environment (no govt subsidies, etc.). But I can't imagine a FReeper being for the large ones meant to power the grid.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Twisty winds are tornadoes and yes, they can do a lot more damage.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

[hecticskeptic]

Wind turbines are supposed to follow IEC 61400 standards, which classify turbines by wind class (I high-wind, II medium, III low-wind) and specify extreme 50-year gust speeds: 70 m/s for Class I, 59.5 m/s for Class II, and 52.5 m/s for Class III. [see this report…. https://www.ae.metu.edu.tr/~wtaj/projects/WTMA-3000A3.pdf ]” For the record, 59.5 m/s is 214 km/hr which equates to 133 mph…. that is almost identical to the wind speed that was recorded the other day in Highmore, SD (133 mph).

There is an intriguing statement at the bottom of page 58 / top of page 59 on this document… https://puc.sd.gov/commission/dockets/Civil/2019/batenumber/1200-1277.pdf “The Project is classified as an IEC Classification Class II wind site. IEC Classifications are a set of design requirements that ensure wind turbines are engineered against damage from hazards within their planned lifetime. An IEC Class II wind site has an annual average wind speed at the hub height greater than 8.5 mis and less than IO m/s.”

While the above is a ‘South Dakoto’ document it doesn’t necessarily apply to the Highmore site but it seems likely that the failed wind turbine area was supposed to be classified as a Class II wind site. When a further check was done for the highest recorded wind in this area, this was found….. …. https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/severe-weather-wind-hail-midwest-plains-thunderstorms and it contains this statement…. “The 131-mph wind gust recorded in Holabird, South Dakota, is the second-strongest in the state since record-keeping began in 2003, according to revised data from NOAA. It’s also expected to be verified as the 15th strongest wind gust produced by a thunderstorm in U.S. history, according to NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC).”

Bottom line it seems likely that these wind turbines were selected for a Class II wind area although history had already proved that this would leave no margin since winds of that speed had been experienced before. As for the design, it seems likely that they were supposed to be designed to handle the Class II winds of 133 mph but with 20 of 27 either failing or suffering serious damaged, it seems evident that they did not meet the design criteria.

There are a number of assumptions built into the above review… if anyone has more information that can confirm or set the record straight with any of these, it would be great if they are provided.

[kaktuskid]

AKA Gust Fronts

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Tornadoes" got the cool name. But "Straight-Line Winds" got such a boring name. It really isn't fair.

"Tornado" comes from Spanish tronada (thunderstorm) blended with tornar (to turn) — it's got that rolling, dramatic sound baked right in. Meanwhile "straight-line wind" is just... a straight-line wind. Meteorologists apparently used up all their creativity on the rotating stuff.

But straight-line winds aren't totally left out — they've got some solid monikers hiding in the family:

• Derecho — Spanish for "straight" or "direct," and it sounds fantastic. Rolls off the tongue, feels appropriately menacing for something that can flatten forests, windmills, barns and silos across three states.
• Haboob — Arabic for "blasting/blowing," used for the dust-wall gust fronts. Great word. Try not to confuse with "jihad," though.
• Williwaw — a sudden violent gust off mountainous coasts (used a lot in Alaska/Tierra del Fuego). Sounds like a cartoon character but it's a real meteorological term.
• Bora — a cold, violent katabatic wind off the Adriatic. Short, punchy, ominous.
• Santa Ana Winds — hot, dry, gusty winds that blow from inland deserts toward the Southern California coast, often in fall and winter. Named after the Santa Ana Canyon (or possibly the Santa Ana River valley), they're notorious for fanning wildfires.
• Chinook Winds — warm, dry winds that come down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, capable of raising temperatures dramatically in a matter of hours. Nicknamed "snow eaters" because they can melt a foot of snow in a day. The name comes from the Chinook people of the Pacific Northwest.

So really "straight-line wind" is just the boring umbrella term — like how "storm" is boring but "hurricane," "nor'easter," and "monsoon" are all interesting subtypes underneath it. The dramatic names exist, they're just reserved for the specific flavors rather than the whole category.

Meteorologists chose "straight-line wind" specifically because it's a functional term — it exists to contrast directly with tornado in damage assessments, so plain-and-descriptive was the point, not a failure of imagination.

Still, "tornadoes" got the cool name. Life is so unfair. It's like being black or having brown skin these days. Whites are left out.

Now how did "Chinook" migrate from the PNW to the Rocky Mountains? A mystery for another time.

Dad used to lovingly tell me "Don't be a schnook." Did that come from Chinook?

[Magnum44]