Good News!!

I have some good news for those of you that don't particularly like the snow; it doesn't look like we are going to have nearly the amount originally expected. There are many components that have to be just right for a snow storm. Many of these I won't go into now however, there is one factor that is weighing heavily against the snow fall.

The amount of moisture is critical to a snowstorm. Moisture is one of the main reason why we have weather on our planet. Well, you can actually have too much of a good thing. The dew point is the easiest way to measure moisture in the atmosphere. When it comes to winter weather, you have to always keep in mind the freezing point, which is 32 degrees. So, to get a big snow storm, you want your dew point temperatures to be at or below the 32 degree mark. Well, if you look at a current surface map from when I wrote this, you can see that many areas in central and eastern South Dakota do not have dew points below 32 (the green numbers).

So that is just one of many reasons why we are not getting the snow to fall.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz