Blizzard Coming... And Cold Too!

Alright, so maybe that "!" is unnecessary in the title for this post - but we still have some REALLY nasty weather headed to most of us for this weekend. Toward Saturday night look for snow to start up as the cold front moves in for that area - we'll then see some snow showers pick up as well. Then things really get going toward Sunday morning. We'll see some snowfall totals edging in around the 5-7" mark for a lot of people, with some locations that are more isolated picking up closer to 8 or 9 inches. Add to that some strong winds, and you've got yourself a blizzard. Then, add to the blizzard an arctic blast - and I don't even know what you call it. I guess you could just call it really bad weather.

We'll cover it point by point below...

1) Snow Potential

You can see a sharp gradient from 1" of snow to about 10" forecasted. Our totals are pretty close from our KDLT weather center, for now, to those of this computer model above. In Sioux Falls we're looking for some totals around 1-2 inches of blowing snow. Expect those winds to howl on Sunday.

Speaking of winds...

2) Wind Potential

You can see if you look closely, winds about 20-25mph sustained by midday Sunday. Some of those winds will reach higher than that as well - likely upwards of 35-45mph with gusts over 50. They will be chilly winds from the North.

Speaking of chilly winds...

3) Cold Temperature Potential

Look for highs Sunday to be in the morning with a steady drop all day long - ending up below zero. Some highs for Monday as per the computer models, which have issues when they apply statistics to things, are shown below:


Highs below zero? You bet! Look for that to happen in the northern half of South Dakota for Monday, following the blizzard.

And there you have it... things aren't looking too good weather-wise. All that being said, have a good weekend and travel safely if you have to travel at all. Try to avoid travel on Sunday if you can.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer