COLD!!!

Wow, is it going to get cold tonight. Not real warm out there today when you factor in the winds, wind chills 25-45 degrees below zero today. But tonight, actual air temperatures will be the coldest of the season and could be the coldest we have been since 1996. Here is the culprit; arctic cold front that worked its way through the state last night driving polar air down into the Midwest. This first map shows the cold air rocketing southward with 850mb temperatures over South Dakota of 18 to 22 degrees below zero.So there is the cold air. But, you need one other component; calm winds. The calm winds allow the very cold dense air to sink to the surface and so the thermometer in your backyard will just tank. So how do we get calm winds? Well, if a high pressure were to move directly overhead then we would have a very small pressure gradient which would reduce the winds to calm. The picture below shows a high pressure moving directly overhead tonight allowing maximum cooling to take place and making it an extremely frigid night. So, it looks like all of the components are there for the temperatures to get to their coldest level in years. Stay Warm!!

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz