Cooler Weather Here & Elsewhere... And A Discussion About 4th Of July Weather

We've been hearing complaints from fellow meteorologists around the country about cold weather here in the KDLT Weather Department - even though we certainly haven't been complaining. Here is a look at a few of the more extreme cooler high temperatures we saw around the country:

We saw temperatures in the lower 80s and upper 70s around our region - nearly perfect for most people. Looking ahead, we do see some warming out there by early next week:

While those computer-model forecast temperatures indicate similar temperatures to what we are seeing now - we are disagreeing with the computers at this point, and looking for a larger upper-level low over the Great Lakes region to dissipate - leaving everyone warmer. Expect middle to upper 80s by the middle of next week.

As for the 4th of July forecast... we are seeing the possibility of rain toward the West and South of Sioux Falls - but affecting some people. Here is a map showing model forecasts for precipitation on Saturday evening:See all of those showers? Kind of makes us nervous about this forecast - but don't lose hope just yet. The weekend is still a ways away - and this system looks very disorganized, which means there is a high likelihood it will shift or disappear in some way.

Stay tuned!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

A Weird Weather Record

Now that June is just about over, we can look back at just how unusual it was. We started off the month extremely cool, averaged highs in the first few days that we typically see in April. Not to mention, the first half of June (typically our most active month for severe weather) went by with almost no severe weather at all. But then the second half was just the opposite; severe weather practically everyday and heat and humidity that we haven't seen in quite some time. But none of those elements created any weather records. However, it did seem like a very wet month. Whether it was cold and cloudy or hot and humid, it seemed to rain a lot. Well, in fact it did. Sioux Falls tied a record for the most days in the month of June with measurable rainfall. Now despite the fact that we saw so many days with rain, Sioux Falls was still officially below average on the month seeing just over three inches of rain. Below is the official record for the month of June for not only Sioux Falls but also Huron and Sioux City. Following that is the month rainfall distribution by days both courtesy of the National Weather Service.~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Cooler Weather Stays... But Will The Calm?

We're seeing a trend this week of generally cooler temperatures... with a large upper level storm system affecting the eastern portions of the country. For us that means a generally sunnier period with only a couple of storm chances. But... There is a boundary out there from west to east of temperatures.

Look at those temperatures out to the West - with upper 80s to lower 90s on the map. Then you contract that to the lower 70s and lower 80s toward the East. That is your boundary...

This is what happens when you have a boundary like that:

You can see some strong-looking storms on that map - with the red polygon there in the middle indicating a severe thunderstorm warned storm.

We'll see a couple more storm chances this week - but for the most part they should hold off until the middle to end of the week.

Have a great Monday night & enjoy the beautiful weather toward the East!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Gorgeous Week!

Looks like severe weather season may be taking a breather finally as we saw nearly two weeks of severe weather across the region. But the first half of this week looks like it will be very similar to your Sunday as not only will temperatures be around average but we have finally gotten rid of that humidity that has been making it feel so unbelievably uncomfortable outside. Here is a look at what one model is forecasting for dew points over the next 48 hours.Notice that all of the dew points will stay under the 60 degree mark and in some cases may drop into the 40's which makes it feel extremely comfortable outside. So get out and enjoy the beautiful June and July weather this weekend. Don't forget the sunglasses!!!

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Persistence is the Name of the Game

is going to be the name of the game for awhile... guess us meteorologists here can finally get a break from the severe weather - maybe catch up on our sleep :) Here's why: Where the red "L" is placed is an area of upper level low pressure near the Great Lakes region. That's usually a major weather-maker and is the cause of most of the rain and clouds we get.That low is basically going to be sitting in the Great Lakes region for most of the work week, meaning we'll be under a ridge of high pressure for the same amount of time. High pressure means sinking air which means there's no potential for upward motion meaning no chance for thunderstorms or rain. The arrows in the pink are basically the flow of the upper level jet stream. We're going to be stuck in mainly a NW flow as far as winds go, which means drier and cooler air will be flushed into our region. Dew points will stay in the 40 and 50s for the most part, which means we won't have anything near the humidity we did last week. It doesn't look like this pattern will change much until the 4th of July weekend but Cody and Aaron will keep you posted.

For now, enjoy the brief drier cool down!
~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Rain Through Song

That cold front brought quite a bit of rain to our area... most of the state was under flood watches yesterday, so here's a look at how much rain we got in central and northern SD (thanks NWS ABR):

These are the other overnight rainfall reports from the SE section of the state and into IA and MN (thanks NWS FSD):
Southeast South Dakota
Astoria 0.75
Brookings Arpt 0.74
Brookings COOP 0.78
Chamberlain Arpt 1.33
Crooks 0.69
Ethan 3 mi East 1.21
Huron 4 mi West 0.41
Madison 0.50
Mitchell Arpt 1.04
Montrose 1.10
Salem 1.46
Salem 1 mi NW 1.46
Sioux Falls 4 mi SSE 0.47
Sioux Falls 5 mi SSE 0.47
Sioux Falls Arpt 0.64
White Lake 0.70
Yankton Arpt 0.39
Yankton COOP 0.35

Southwest Minnesota
Hardwick 0.54
Heron lake 0.44
Jackson 0.08
Lakefield 0.10
Marshall COOP 0.15
Slayton 0.40
Windom 0.34
Worthington COOP 0.10

Northwest Iowa
Alton 0.47
Cherokee 0.02
Holly Springs 0.15
Le Mars Trace
Orange City 0.03
Rock Valley 0.04
Sheldon 0.06
Sibley 0.25
Sioux City Arpt 0.05
Sioux City COOP 0.07
Storm Lake Trace


And just for fun because of all of the recent rain - check out this link: It's pretty cool!

KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Update On Severe Storms With Viewer Pictures

We've been busy tracking a line of severe storms stretching basically from North Dakota all the way south through South Dakota and into Nebraska. Numerous reports of strong wind and large hail have come in - but at least to this point no tornadoes or tornado warnings, despite the tornado watch.

These are some pictures from Zach in Pierre, who is always happy to help us out and send us some storm pictures when big ones go through that area.


So... we continue to watch these storms. The tornado watches are in effect until 2am, so it could end up being a late night for us here in the KDLT Weather Center.

Have a good night, and we'll update you if anything exciting happens worth blogging about.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Severe Weather Tonight

We're watching and waiting for storms to move into the area. Already there is a severe thunderstorm watch and tornado watch for large regions of South Dakota. Keep that in mind if you're heading out tonight, and check out www.weather.gov for the latest on watches and warnings if you are not near a TV.

This is what we're seeing so far - with the red polygons being severe thunderstorm warnings.


The tornado watch was just issued while I was typing this update, so we're watching that closely. It's valid until 2am, while the severe thunderstorm watch is valid until 10pm tonight.

Stay tuned and stay safe! Send us your pictures to weather@kdlt.com or a_shaffer@kdlt.com!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Heavy Rain?

More thunderstorms are in our future. But unlike the last couple of weeks, there is an abundance of moisture at all levels of the atmosphere. Combine that with the expectation of very slow moving storms and that sets up a recipe for flash flooding. The Hydrological Prediction Center (HPC) has even issued a slight risk for potential flash flooding in portions of South Dakota.This is only issued when there is a possibility of seeing widespread flash flooding due to storms. Also because of that, they are expecting some widespread heavy rain. Here is a look at what the HPC is expecting for rainfall through 7am Saturday.So get ready to dodge not only the hail and high winds, but flooding as well.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Tornado Video & Tornado/Storm Pictures

We had quite a night last night in the KDLT Weather Center... as you likely noticed if you happened to turn us on at all last night - or any other channel as well.

We have a few people to thank for a lot of our information - we talked quite a bit with Nick Hartley of the Brookings Register, as well as Jason Bechler, a storm chaser from Luverne.

We start with video of a tornado near Fulton shot by Nick Hartley, with support from Scott Olson:



And then we got some more video of a tornado from Jason Bechler as well:



And then, of course, we got some AMAZING pictures! I'll post a few of them - but you can see EVERYTHING on our KDLT Facebook page - with a link to that on the right hand side of the page.

We'll let these pictures speak for themselves... but we strongly encourage you to head to the KDLT Weather Facebook page to see the rest and the video as well.


Great pictures! Thanks for sending them - and we're continuing to add more pictures to our KDLT Weather Facebook page as fast as we can sort through them! So if you've sent us some and don't see them there just be patient for a bit.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Late Storm Update

Well... better late than never. If you've been watching KDLT at all tonight you've been watching me cut in countless times to keep you up to date on the severe weather. We expected it to develop eventually - and it didn't end up following that line I pointed out earlier - although some storms did end up in that area.

These were a few of the tornado warnings we saw from earlier:


Cody and I are still in the weather center watching these storms moving through the area. Stay tuned to KDLT for more information!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Severe Weather Today? Plus... Storm Pictures From Viewers

It's been a pretty stormy period ever since we decided to start summer (or the weather decided to start giving us summer-like weather). We saw 2 storms hit Sioux Falls, and many other areas, for Tuesday. Today we are looking for more storms to form.

Here's the deal so far...

That radar image above doesn't look too exciting in the middle - but look closely at that line in the middle stretching from left to right. That is a line where winds are shifting and it is associated with a cold front moving through the area. We are watching that line to see if storms will fire off around it.

Also, we have some interesting viewer pictures we got via email during our 10pm news and shortly after that yesterday. Remember you can always send us your pictures as well to weather@kdlt.com or to me at a_shaffer@kdlt.com.

This first picture is of a storm and sent in by Charlie from Hartford. You can see a familiar sight of late - with lots of storminess and rain in the distance.

Another one was sent in by Victoria and shows a similar type of stormy situation.

We're looking for more storms like that to form, so keep an eye out and make sure you send us those pictures!

Have a great night, and we'll keep you up to date on the storm situation if it becomes severe.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Stormy Wednesday Ahead?

We've been talking storms for a while on our KDLT Weather Blog - and I guess since it's still June and there is moisture in the air we're going to be talking about them for a while. The deal for Wednesday is that a cold front will progress through the area. We're looking for possible isolated overnight storms Tuesday night late into Wednesday - but then more numerous storms form during the day on Wednesday.

We haven't really shown you a computer-model generated forecast in a while - so figured today would be the day.

This is what a global forecast model is showing us for about 7pm Wednesday night - imagine that the shaded regions are showing "future radar" and you'll get the picture:


See that bullseye right in the southeastern corner of our viewing area? We'll be watching for that! There is a bit different picture that comes out of our other more local-scaled weather model. This one is known as a "mesoscale" model - meaning it has some very small-scale features it considers that a global model will miss. They both have their pluses and minuses - but again we recommend you picture this map as one showing "future radar:"

Either way you slice it - Wednesday looks stormy. Remember to check out our KDLT Weather Blog for updates, and watch KDLT because we'll update you as necessary.

Have a great night!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Hot is an Understatement

I would like a chance to redeem myself for the moment. Did not forecast thunderstorms this early in the day across the east. This will drastically reduce high temperatures today in Eastern South Dakota. For this I apologize. However, if it wasn't for this rogue cluster of storms, it would be ridiculously hot. For instance, I found a couple of things that makes me thankful that I indeed was wrong in my forecast. This first graphic is a surface chart showing temperature in red and dew point in green at certain areas across the region. Notice NW Iowa with dew points well into the 70's to near 80 degrees which makes the air oppressively humid.However, not on that map is an observation taken in Algona, Iowa which is about 40 or so miles east of Spencer. The current observation at 11:15 this morning is located below.

Please take note of two things. 1) The dew point, which is the highest dew point I have ever observed. 2) The heat index of 121 degrees which is unbelievable and would be unbearable.

So despite the fact that many of us have seen rain this morning, it may be a blessing in disguise if the alternative was that kind of heat.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Thunderstorms Redeveloping this Afternoon

A cluster of showers and storms are moving through central South Dakota this morning. They are rocketing off to the northeast at about 50 mph. This means that they will likely be out of the area by the early afternoon hours, making way for some sunshine. That sunshine will add instability to the atmosphere and aid in the development of more thunderstorms this afternoon. But trying to figure out exactly where these scattered storms will develop can be difficult. However, with the storms moving through the state this morning, we might be able to determine where storms will form later because of the outflow boundaries that these thunderstorms have produced. An outflow boundary is a boundary separating thunderstorm cooled air from the surrounding air. It is basically a mini cold front that sweeps across the areas around the thunderstorm. Well once the thunderstorm dissipates, these boundaries or "mini cold fronts" become mini stationary fronts and can be the focal point for thunderstorms to develop later in the day. So, keeping track of them and identifying where they are can greatly increase the accuracy of a forecast. Here is a radar image as an example of an outflow boundary, it is circled in black.~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Hot Weather Today... Hot Weather Tomorrow?

It's been another toasty and somewhat muggy day - although not quite as muggy as what we saw for Sunday after those morning rainstorms... Today we've been seeing dewpoints in the middle 60s, while Sunday we saw middle 70s. Dewpoints being a reflection of the amount of moisture in the air- middle 70s are more typical tropical types of dewpoints. Very moist, and very hot.

This image below is showing some of the current temperatures as of nearly 6pm at night on Monday:

While we have been hot in our region - look toward Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas... see those 100s? Makes you realize it isn't "that" hot here - but is definitely hot, despite what others are seeing. In Houston, TX, a fellow meteorologist I know informed me that they've now had 11 days in a row of highs 97 or higher.

We'll continue to see plenty of hot weather for Tuesday... although not as hot as people are seeing to the South. Temperatures will make it back up into the lower 90s for Tuesday in the East and the Southeast.

Look to the Northwest, though, on that map above of forecasted temperatures for Tuesday. You can see 70s and 80s on the way, so there will be some relief by Wednesday. Don't expect 70s - but middle to upper 80s are a possibility.

Enjoy the heat - and schedule some time to visit a swimming pool or a lake!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Hot and Steamy

Temperatures today will likely be some of the warmest of the year. But it's not just the temperatures that will make it very warm today but the humidity as well. The heat index becomes a big topic this time of year. It combines the actual air temperature with humidity levels to equal the temperature of what it feels like outside to a human. They use a complicated formula to come up with this heat index but have created a pretty simplistic table to describe the basics.This table shows air temperature on the top and then relative humidity levels on the left. Keep in mind that relative humidity is different from the dew point. You combine the two numbers in the middle and you will find the temperature that it feels like outside. We will be very borderline heat advisory criteria (heat index of 105-110 degrees) today and tomorrow. I have circled the areas that I am expecting many places across southern South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota to reach today and tomorrow. So try to drink lots of water and limit your outdoor activities because the next two days are going to be dangerously hot.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Looks Like I Spoke Too Soon!

Of course the day after I say we're going to get a break... things change. Leave it to the weather - just when you think you've got things figured out it proves you wrong. I guess all this heat and humidity we're expecting tomorrow and Tuesday does now have the potential to spark up some severe weather.This is the Day 1 potential - so for Monday afternoon and evening.

This is the Day 2 outlook for Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Looks like we're going to have some more active weather to kick off the week in addition to heat!

Crank up the A.C. - you're going to need it!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

A Bit of a Break!

I'm sure you've all seen us post this type of map before, it's from the Storm Prediction Center. They put out the slight risks, moderate risks and high risks for severe weather. After 16 tornado touchdowns, over 70 hail reports and over 10 high wind reports in the past week, we're going to finally get a bit of a break from severe weather for awhile. I circled this coming week and it's chance of severe weather in red. You can see there's a slight risk for today, Sunday and Monday but these are severe risks for the entire nation. If you check out the website itself and click on the word "Slight" for Sunday you'll see that the risk isn't in our area, same story for Monday. After Monday there isn't supposed to be any severe weather for the rest of the week. Now of course things can change - the closer we get to the end of the week, the better the forecast gets so we could still see some severe weather spark up, but it's not likely to have a serious of severe weather outbreaks like we did last week. Bad news for storm chasers but great news for insurance agents. ;)

I'm currently keeping my eyes on some showers and storms pushing north that will keep the rain going into the morning hours for Dad's Day, but these aren't expected to be severe and they should be out of our neck of the woods near noon.

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Viewer Pictures From The Past Couple Of Days

We've gotten a few storm pictures over the past few days - but unfortunately we had so much weather we never got a chance to post them on the KDLT Weather Blog... so tonight is the night!

The picture about is from just after a tornado-warned storm (see post below for video of the storm itself) passed over the Brookings area.

This picture above was sent from the cell phone of a viewer as the storm rolled through eastern South Dakota. That was a pretty familiar view for a lot of us, and prompted us to run a crawl just to let people know this storm was not officially severe - but was still producing stronger winds and small hail.

This picture from from just south of Aberdeen as severe storms rolled through the area.

Quite an interesting week we saw! Saturday looks fairly tame - at least in comparison - with most storms holding off until Sunday morning. Then we see the possibility of more severe weather kicking in for a few days.

Have a great weekend!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Video: Tornado Warned Storm Cycling

As this storm we saw between De Smet and Madison, near the Oldham area, we saw it change from a severe thunderstorm to a rotating severe thunderstorm - which prompted a tornado warning to be issued. While this was going on we were rolling on a timelapse of the storm once again.

We'll be watching this system pretty closely - right now it's actually the only severe storm or tornadic storm in our area.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Video: Severe Storm Developing

We have been watching a strong storm developing near De Smet and Madison - actually in between the two. We caught a timelapse of its early development.

Shortly after finishing this timelapse our computer beeped to alert us to a severe thunderstorm warning where the storm is producing large hail.

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Our first tornado warnings of the day now in the same area we blogged about earlier. Stay tuned for the latest!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

We're seeing some of our first development of the day in the severe thunderstorm department. A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued covering the northern half of our viewing area surrounding the Aberdeen area. We're looking for that warning to be spreading, as storms start to spread toward the South.

You can see this first stronger storm, still non-severe as of this posting, making its way into South Dakota from our neighbors to the north. It's just a few miles northwest of Mound City right now - and likely the first of many. We're anticipating numerous warned storms, both severe thunderstorm and tornado, this afternoon and evening - so stay tuned!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Largest Severe Threat of 2009

According to the Storm Prediction Center's (SPC) forecast, we are under the largest risk for severe weather today that we have seen since last summer. They just updated their probabilities for hail, wind, and tornadoes. First off, categorically speaking we are under a slight and some are under a moderate risk for severe weather starting this afternoon and going through the overnight.To break that down even further, there are probability maps for seeing a severe weather report within 25 miles of a point. So for this first one which is hail, there is a 45% chance of seeing a large hail report within 25 miles of you today.

Also, a hatched area means that the SPC is expecting reports of hail 2" in diameter or larger, wind gusts over 70 mph, and tornadoes EF2 or larger.

Here are the probabilities for wind:

Here are the probabilities for tornadoes:So you want to take this very seriously because the potential is there for a very large severe weather outbreak tonight.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Severe Storms this Morning

Had a line of severe thunderstorms move through the area over the course of the early morning hours. It produced wind gusts up to 70 mph and had a classic signiture of a bow echo. What is a bow echo exactly? Well look at the picture below to see one.

This particular line of storms is called a bow echo because it literally takes the shape of a bow with the middle part of the line portruding outward. This happens because very strong winds inside the storm are actually pushing the rain in the storm forward causing it to be further downstream then the rest of the storm. There are also certain areas we look for very strong winds in even a smaller scale then a bow. We look for whats called an "inflow notch." This notch is an area in the back part of the storm with very low amount of radar returns. The areas I am talking about is where the arrow is pointing. The piece I circled is the area where the strongest winds would be located in the storm according to the location of the inflow notch.

Another round of severe weather possible later today and tonight so get ready for more!!

KDlt Meteorologist Cody Matz

Viewer Pictures From Tuesday... Weird Hail & A Tornado

As we're watching this severe thunderstorm watch to make sure nothing severe sprouts up... we're looking through some of our viewer photos sent in. There are a couple interesting ones from yesterday that you may be interested in. The first is a picture of a tornado from Hand county.

This was the picture taken by the Hand county sheriff:

Here is what he had to say about it:

Some of you contacted my office (Hand County Sheriff's Office) about a photograph of the tornado which was reported and verified in Southeast Hand County. The storm was located north of 213th Street and near 370th Avenue. Members of the Wessington Fire Department and Ambulance service were watching the storms and reported a funnel. At 3:53 PM the EMTs reported the funnel had reached the ground and became a tornado. I took this photo about three minutes into the life of the tornado. The tornado lived for several minutes and seemed to swirl around on the ground looking for a direction to head. It eventually disapated into the rope stage and disappeared.

Distance between me and the tornado..about 1 to 1.25 miles. Ground cross-section: one to three tenths of a mile across.

Interesting stuff! We appreciate pictures like that - especially with the detail given. If you have pictures like that send them to KDLT at weather@kdlt.com and we'll put them on-air or on the weather blog.

The other picture was interesting as well:


That donut-shaped hail was seen by the Gregorys near Ethan. Pretty wild. If you are curious to know how donut-shaped hail forms send an email to a_shaffer@kdlt.com and I'll give you the details.

Stay safe, and we'll update you if anything else happens tonight!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer