I don't know the last time that South Dakota has had 3 blizzards in the fall but it has been a while. Here comes the third one to round out fall and to officially start the winter season. This one will effect a little bit different area however. Instead of being in mainly western and central South Dakota, it will include Eastern South Dakota, much of Minnesota and Iowa. Blizzard watches and even some warnings are already issued as you saw by Aaron's blog. Here is the main reason why we are seeing the blizzard again. Low pressure goes by us and an extremely strong high pressure builds to our West causing the pressure gradient needed to really get the winds goin. Here is an image of 850 mb winds (about 5000 feet) that can be transported down to the surface during this kind of event.
The area in red shows sustained winds at 50 knots (about 60 mph). With these kind of winds, we are expecting tremendous blowing and drifting of the snow so even if its not actually snowing, it will probably look like it is. My recommendation is to just stay inside and wait it out. If you are planning on traveling tomorrow, I would advise you to try and get to your destination today or just wait till Sunday evening when things finally wind down. Aaron will update you tonight on the expected snowfall which will be heavier in the Northeast this go around. Stay safe this weekend!~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz
4 comments:
Can we expect to see a break in the cold and snowy weather anytime soon?
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear like it. The Climate Prediction Center (the geniuses that predict long term weather) is saying that the next two weeks are likely to be colder and wetter then normal. But this doesnt necessarily mean that we wont get a warm day here and a warm day there. It just means that if you average all the days together, it will be wetter and colder. Not much hope though in the near term as we dont have signs of a descent warm up until Christmas Day. Its pretty far out at this point so Im a little skeptical just how warm it's going to be but I will keep my fingers crossed!
I plan to drive from Mpls to the Black Hills overnight. Will I miss the storm?
Hello "Anonymous..."
I would suggest leaving as soon as possible if you are planning on driving - but if you can't leave really soon you should probably try to wait out the storm.
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Thoughts from you guys...