Northwest High Plains Weather

Heavy Rains

rcweather — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:59:32 +0000

Here are some of the 24-hour rain totals as of 7am this morning:
2 miles NE Deadwood 4.12″
5.5 miles SSW Lead 3.47″
13 miles SSE Wall 1.76″
4.2 miles NNW Whitewood 1.11″
1.0 miles S Sturgis 1.07″
3.7 miles SW Newell 0.55″
2.8 miles ENE Newell 0.47″

Radar estimates show up to 5 inches fell just east of Spearfish.
The green colors indicate 1 to 2 inches, yellow indicates 2 to 3 inches and the purplish-red is 5 inches of rainfall. Heavy rain also fell just northeast of Pine Ridge.

The White River at Interior and Kadoka are both 5 feet higher than early Saturday morning.

Dry Until Friday

rcweather — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:03:36 +0000

Temperatures just before sunrise were in the 50-55 range this morning. (Some places in the Black Hills saw morning lows only in the upper 60s.)

A bubble of warm air is overhead and that will allow the temperature to shoot up into the 70s this morning and then level out in the middle or upper 70s this afternoon as a cold front moves through. That cold front will bring us gusty north winds to 25 mph this afternoon. Clouds will gradually thicken up this afternoon, too.

Tomorrow’s temperatures will be back to normal with readings in the middle 60s, then we’ll be back to the mid 70s on Thursday.

The atmosphere moistens up Friday with an increase in the cloud cover and, by late in the day, an increasing chance of rain. There will be a few showers Friday night into Saturday morning morning and then the clouds will thin out Saturday afternoon.

The sea-surface temperatures of the northeast Pacific Ocean are cooling down and will bring us a dramatic shift in weather towards the end of the month – and set us up for a colder-than-normal November and December.

Dry Weather Continues

rcweather — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:08:37 +0000

Its a quiet day around here and across much of the country. Rain will continue across much of the Northeast and a a few showers will be over the Southwest. Otherwise there will be plenty of sunshine to go around.

For us – skies will be mostly sunny this afternoon with scattered clouds. The clouds will thicken up overnight and then move off to the southeast early tomorrow afternoon. There will be a good chance of frost across North Dakota and the northeast half of South Dakota tonight despite the the thin cloud cover. After a smattering of morning clouds, much of tomorrow afternoon will be sunny, as will be Sunday morning. Clouds will be develop move in from the west on Monday and Tuesday will be partly sunny with a slim chance of a shower.

Highs today and Saturday will be mainly in the 60s, then mainly in the 70s for Sunday through Tuesday.

We won’t saying good-bye to this warm, dry weather pattern for another two weeks. Since soil conditions are in good shape (greens and blues are moist, browns and yellows are dry) another two weeks should not be a problem. Wyoming, however, needs moisture and it appears they won’t get anything substantial for another three weeks.

More Sunshine

rcweather — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:49:21 +0000

Ho – hum, another sunny day. There will be a few clouds around on Saturday and the next chance of showers will be Tuesday. The normal high is 67 and low 45.

Highs:
Today 73-77
Friday 73-77
Saturday 69-74
Sunday 78-83
Monday 81-86

Hot Today

rcweather — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:47:02 +0000

Temperatures will be near record highs today across Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska with readings in the upper 80s and low 90s. Temperatures will be mainly in the 80s across western North Dakota and eastern Montana.

The rest of the week, however, will be much cooler with temperatures ranging from the low 80s from Wyoming to the Nebraska Panhandle, to the mid 70s across northeast Wyoming, western South Dakota and eastern Montana. Meanwhile temperatures will be mid 60s over western and central North Dakota.

Temperatures for the weekend will range from the upper 70s over central North Dakota and central South Dakota to the upper 80s over Wyoming and central Montana.

Sunny and Warm

rcweather — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:33:54 +0000

With the start of the archery deer hunting season comes a little warmer weather, too warm on Sunday to leave a carcass out very long.

We’ll be mostly cloud-free until about 7pm Sunday which will make for good color contrast if you’re taking pictures of the leaves this weekend. The sky will be a deeper blue Sunday morning – and deeper yet Sunday afternoon.

The next chance of significant rain will be in about 10 days when moisture from the Gulf of Mexico’s tropical storms sweep up this way.

Rapid City’s Forecast:
Today… Sunny. High 70-75.
Tomorrow.. Sunny. High 82-87.
Monday… Partly sunny. High 72-77.
Tuesday… Scattered clouds. High 83-88.

Sunshine!

rcweather — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:10:23 +0000

It is going to be a nice weekend across the entire region with sunny skies and warm temperatures. There will be some cloud cover from about 3pm this afternoon to 10pm and again from 2am to 7am Saturday morning. The rest of Saturday will be sunny. The sky won’t be that really deep blue that creates those postcard images of Fall colors but it will still be bright and sunny. Get used to it – we’re in for a dry spell of at least a week.

Forecast Highs
Today 72-77 Saturday 70-75 Sunday 78-83 Monday 76-81 Tuesday 83-88

1st Day of Autumn

rcweather — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:07:56 +0000

If you have read anything I have written in the last several Septembers, I know that I make a much bigger deal of meteorological autumn than astronomical autumn. Meteorological autumn, which begins September 1 tends to follow the change in the weather much closer. But enough of that. How about today’s Black Hills forecast?

The sun should peek out late this afternoon with partly sunny skies over Rapid City by 3pm while mostly sunny skies develop over the far southwest corner of the state by 5pm. The northern Hills will remain mostly cloudy. Highs today will range from 55-60 with readings of 64-69 at Edgemont and Ardmore.

Skies will be clear by midnight revealing a full harvest moon. Areas of fog will develop overnight but the fog will burn off by 10am tomorrow. Lows will be 36-41 with some valley frost.

A few clouds will move in from the northwest tomorrow afternoon. Highs 72-77.

The weekend will be mostly sunny with highs of 69-74 Saturday and 75-80 on Sunday.

Rainy and Cooler

rcweather — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 11:33:14 +0000

Showers and thunderstorms have been falling over central South Dakota already this morning, moving toward the northeast. It is the first wave of what will be several waves of rain that will pass overhead during the next 36 to 48 hours. Severe thunderstorms will be possible today and tonight across much of South Dakota and Nebraska.

Rainfall through Friday morning will be heaviest where they don’t need it: Eastern South Dakota and Minnesota.

rcweather — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:49:39 +0000

Today is much cooler than yesterday with highs expected to between 68 and 75 and tomorrow will be cooler yet. A large amount of moisture will be coming up out of Mexico Wednesday spreading locally heavy rain across Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

: Weather map for Thursday showing rain areas, the low and fronts.

That storm system will spread across the Great Plains on Thursday. A few areas of western and central South Dakota will see 1.5″ to 2″ of rain Thursday (along with highs in the 50s).