This second set consists of the forecast wind speeds for this morning and then again this afternoon.
And the last image is a surface map snapshot that I took at roughly 7:30 this morning.
Here are the answers. These are the exact five images that I showed above except I drew in the cold fronts' location in black.
If you didn't find the location of the front in all five pictures, don't beat yourself up about it. Just remember that its not an exact science so sometimes things can seemingly disappear and you have to fill in the blanks a little. For instance, the second wind image (the fourth image down), there is no longer an abrupt wind change in places along the front, therefore, you have to estimate where it is. This is why its not an exact science. But if you did get all five right, maybe you should give me a call and teach me a thing or two, lol.
It would be nice to get some hail pictures - but so far we haven't seen any from these storms. If you happen to be reading this and get some hail, send us your pictures at weather@kdlt.com or to a_shaffer@kdlt.com.
If you click on that image you'll get more detail, but in general the light green colors coincide with radar estimated rainfall totals around 0.5"-0.7", and the blues are closer to 0.2"-0.3". You can see quite a bit of rain has been falling - but we have some re-development farther toward the West right now...
Those are the thunderstorms we speak of - and they are forming right along the line of the cold front, so once the line passes you should be in the clear if you find yourself under one of those thunderstorms right now...
Do you see all of those yellows and pinks on the map? Those indicate regions of higher wind about 70% of the way to the top of the atmosphere. That is the jetstream - and it is right over us! Given what we just mentioned about the jetstream and rain and clouds - you are probably getting the idea! We're hoping to shift the jetstream - but for now no big shifts are in the works... stay tuned!
This could mean that some of the steadier rainfall makes its way out a little earlier then expected IF there isn't anymore re-development on the back side of this line. We will have to watch it closely over the next few hours.
The entire state is wet and according to Palmer's index for drought severity, much of South Dakota is extremely wet and would benefit from a stretch of dry weather.
You'll notice that we have warmed up a bit from the chilly start to the month, and we're actually warmer than we were last April by about 1.4 degrees. We've been below average, though, for the past few years. The last time we saw temperatures above average for the month of April was in 2006 - when average highs were above 62 degrees for the month!
These are those computer-model high temperatures I love to show; forecasted for Tuesday. Upper 50s and lower 60s rule the day - which doesn't seem too bad after a cloudy & cool start to the week. We'll see how long it'll last with our next chance for showers and thunderstorms already arriving by Tuesday night & Wednesday.
These images are three hours apart going from 10-4pm and show the clouds beginning to break up at the 4pm hour. 
This shows that they (HPC) is expecting much of the area to get between one and two inches of rain between now and Saturday morning. This would not help the planting efforts that are taking place across much of the region because the fields need to be dry.
This was definitely a common scene especially across the SD-MN border. Here's a plot of surface weather surface stations around our region.
You can see a lot of pink "=" signs going into Minnesota. That symbol means fog across the region. Up in Mobridge, you can see a "<-->" sign, that's an ice crystal sign, because the temp in Mobridge is just a bit above the freezing mark. The "." and ".." are rain and moderate rain, you can see an "R" shape down in Nebraska - that's the weather symbol for a thunderstorm with lightning. Here's a good site to figure out what some other symbols are on these observation stations. The farther south and east you get from us, the messier the weather gets. This is a composite of the Storm Prediction Center's radar and current "risk outlooks".
And you can definitely tell that's where all the action has happened so far. 11 tornadoes reported (the dots in red), 39 wind reports (the dots in blue) and 118 hail reports (the dots in green). You can definitely tell where the storms are.
We won't be seeing any of this kind of weather for awhile... enjoy the calm but cool next two days before storms fire up on Wednesday.
More snow is on the way for NW South Dakota... here's a look at one model for the snow expected tonight and into Sunday morning. Just 1-2 inches are expected in Corson county, so Mobridge, be warned! 
Expect a breezy, if not windy day as well, and for folks in the rest of SD - we're expecting quite a bit of rainfall... Yankton could see up to 1.5 inches of rain when everything is said and done. Lesser amounts will be seen in the north, Aberdeen only expect to see a quarter of an inch or so. There is some unstable air in the extreme SE region of our viewing area, so we could hear a few rumbles of thunder, some lightning strikes and a slight possibility of small hail. I don't expect much as far as severe weather, most of that will be to our south.
Lots of strong cells out there - and already moving into Wisconsin. There is another chance out there in our far eastern counties for Sunday, but for most of us we can just expect about two doses of rain.
That is not very representative of snow seen elsewhere, but it does show the power of this storm system as it plows ahead through our area.
You can see some totals closing in on around an inch of rain - which could leave us a bit soggy for our Sunday evening.
Notice that there are only a few places on the continent that saw temperatures warmer then us yesterday. So this heat is incredibly uncommon for this time of the year.
This is an image of what one model is forecasting temperatures to be at 4pm this afternoon. Notice the HUGE temperature contrast from northwestern South Dakota which is still in the 30's, to northwest Iowa who are in the low 80's. Tomorrow everyone will cool off as all highs are expected in the 40's and 50's.
On the left side of those numbers are the old record highs - and on the right are the new ones. Pretty impressive temperatures for late April! 
Also, keep in mind that severe weather can also happen outside of these boundaries - this is just where the best chances are starting to show up. Stay tuned to KDLT for updates tomorrow once storms start firing up.
Most of the old records were set back in the 80's and 90's but for Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Mitchell, you have to go all the way back to 1939 to find the records. 
Notice many areas of the north are only in the 50's tomorrow while portions of Iowa will likely get back into the 80's. Then everybody will be chilly on Saturday with highs in the 40's and 50's.
If things pan out as they could - we could be seeing 80s all the way north to the North Dakota border, as well as halfway up the state of Minnesota! Great weather indeed, especially considering we're going to see the first day of 80s on the average first day for Sioux Falls - April 23rd. Interesting. Perhaps we'll be seeing a more "average" type of late spring and summer.
Notice the 30s out west... it looks like some of us are not quite done with a wintry mix type of precipitation. Right now we're not going all out and calling for snow, but it is possible that some of us could see a mix. What we're going to be watching closely is known as the "wet bulb" temperature, and you can click here to learn more about that. All we'll say here is that we want to make sure the wet bulb temperature is above the freezing mark so that we can avoid snow and just get rain.
As you see, one of these areas is above the record level and the others are expected to get close with crests not expected and for at least another week. It could then be a month or more before the river levels are back below flood stage. And just to add insult to injury, the forecast calls for more widespread rain this upcoming weekend.
Just in case you can't read it, basically it says that they (NWS) has toyed with the idea of adding 90's for south central South Dakota. Who would have thought that we would be hearing this just a week or two ago.
They really value the conference in the Bahamas - and it really showed! The people there were so friendly toward us, and made us weather-geek types feel like we belong. That picture above was from the first night when they hosted a welcome party for us.
That picture above was of a forum on the effects of climate change on hurricane strength and development. While my camera kept taking blurry pictures, the guy on the left at the table is Dr. Steve Lyons from the Weather Channel. The 2nd in is Dr. Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center. The 3rd in is Dr. Bill Reed, the current director of the National Hurricane Center, and the 4th on (the one on the right) is Dr. Jim Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They had quite a spirited result, and if you are at all interested in hurricanes and effects of climate change you should make sure to email me (a_shaffer@kdlt.com) and I'll fill you in on the details.
That picture is me with Dr. Bill Gray of Colorado State University. He is quite the spirited atmospheric scientist - and basically one of the founders of modern hurricane science. I was honored to have a picture taken with him at the conference. Just another fun thing that happened on this trip to the Bahamas.
Quite a trip - And I'll keep updating you as I figure out how to post video of the presentations themselves.