Campbell County, SD: Tornado Risk and Shelter Cost
How likely is a tornado in Campbell County, SD?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has recorded 17 tornado tracks touching Campbell County since 1964 - about one every 4.5 years on average. That puts it in our Moderate band nationally. Against the rest of the country, that is the 44th percentile for frequency. Among 66 South Dakota counties in this dataset, Campbell County ranks 59 for how often a tornado touches down.
Has Campbell County ever had a violent tornado?
Nothing violent in Campbell County's file: 17 tracks total, topping out at significant (EF2-3) strength on 6 of them, zero at EF4-5.
Paying for it, if Campbell County's history says you should
A storm shelter or in-residence safe room typically runs $2,890-$13,280 nationally, around $7,645 for a common single-family installation. No state-administered rebate program specific to South Dakota was confirmed for this site - FEMA's own Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants fund 75% of an approved safe room nationwide, but only some states currently run a homeowner-facing application on top of that.
The gap a shelter does not cover
Power loss after a tornado outbreak in South Dakota often reaches homes the storm itself never touched. A battery-backup unit covers the outage without the fuel and venting a generator needs.
County-level, not address-level
Treat this as a county-wide figure, not a prediction for one address. Campbell County covers about 734 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. And records from before the 1990s, NOAA notes, undercount weaker tornadoes in areas with less storm-spotting coverage at the time. Campbell County has about 1,342 residents.