The Late-May 1998 tornado outbreak and derecho was a historic tornado outbreak and derecho that began on the afternoon of May 30 and extended throughout May 31, 1998, across a large portion of the northern half of the United States and southern Ontario from southeastern Montana east and southeastward to the Atlantic Ocean. The initial tornado outbreak, including the devastating Spencer tornado, hit southeast South Dakota on the evening of May 30. The Spencer tornado was the most destructive and the second-deadliest tornado in South Dakota history. A total of 13 people were killed; 7 by tornadoes and 6 by the derecho. Over two million people lost electrical power, some for up to 10 days. The derecho was the most violent line of thunderstorms observed on earth during the 1998 calendar year according to the National Weather Service review shortly after the year was over. It was the climax of an unusually heavy derecho season in the North-Central United States and adjacent parts of Canada and the Northeast United States, and this storm combined the characteristics of the two major forms of derecho, the serial and progressive derecho. At various points of its evolution, it displayed textbook or record manifestations of supercell and derecho-related phenomena such as the right-mover supercell, evolution of supercells into a linear meso-scale feature which rapidly became a derecho, cumulonimbus with overshooting top and dome, bow echo, bookend vortices, regular and rotor downbursts, gust front, gustnado, rear inflow notch, classic derecho radar signature, effects of infrasound and atmospheric electricity, haboobs, and wind effects on bodies of water including seiches and exposure of bottoms of water features by the wind. The disturbance which was originally the derecho finally disappeared off the coast of Norway more than a week later. May 30 South Dakota event The first severe weather of the outbreak was reported at 12:30 p.m. in southeast Montana. Several hours later a supercell thunderstorm produced hail across southeast Montana, kicking off the outbreak in earnest. Numerous reports of very large hail were received throughout the outbreak with the largest official report of north of St. Lawrence in east-central South Dakota. The hail itself produced thousands of dollars in damage. Many reports of severe straight-line winds and damage were also reported. Numerous storm chaser reports suggest that significant severe weather events also occurred in the sparsely populated area traversed by the storm. Later that evening, a supercell