Spring Making a Brief Appearance

Temperatures are going to be quite mild through the end of the week with many areas 10-20 degrees above average. However, don't put away those winter coats just yet because Winter like weather will likely return before long. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) produces many long term forecasts for the U.S. and their prognosis for the weather this weekend and next week doesn't look good if you are wanting spring to come early. The next two maps are the forecast for overall temperature and precipitation for the U.S. 6-10 days from today.
(These maps are all about probability. So when reading them, the darker the shade of color like green blue or brown, the higher the probability is of seeing above or below normal.)

You notice that there is a pretty high likelihood that temperatures will be below normal and precipitation will be above normal in the state of South Dakota. Now, the fact that it is still March, it is likely that the precipitation will be in the form of snow with temperatures below average.

Then we progress to the forecast of 8-14 days from today.

This also shows temperatures likely below normal. However, precipitation is now forecasted to have a large probability of being below normal.

Now this last map is a composite of all of the hazardous weather related events that the CPC expects to happen in the next 10 days. Notice that South Dakota is located in two of them; Periods of heavy snow March 7-9 and much below average temperatures March 9-10.

Keep in mind that these are just estimates and things can and likely will change at least a little before the events occur. But it just goes to show that just when you think you're in the clear, old man winter can come roaring back.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz