Lightning Strikes House Video... And High Humidity Returning?

We've talked a lot about storms the past few days because it's been stormy. We also had a video a little bit back showing the aftermath of a woman's car being hit by lightning. How about video of an actual lightning strike on a house?

This is video from NBC showing this Florida man's video. Impressive stuff.

After watching that... you're probably wondering when the next time we'll be seeing storms is. The answer to that is we'll be seeing a lot of isolated to lightly scattered storms over the next couple of days. The big story - and change from our less active period - is that we're looking for abundant humidity to move in.

It starts on Thursday - as dewpoints could be rising into the 60s once again. Then we see dewpoints possibly closer to the 70s Friday to Saturday depending on sunshine and rain totals. It could feel a bit more tropical Friday to Friday night, with humidity sticking around after that as well.
See that lighter green area? If you look closely you'll see the shades of green match up with those in the bar at the bottom depicting dewpoints 60-70 degrees. That is for Friday morning. With those types of dewpoints it is more of a surprise if we *don't* see rain/storms than if we do. Remember that dewpoints are a reflection of the amount of moisture in the air, you can read more about them on Wikipedia by clicking here.

Have a great night!

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Hot This Weekend??

Not a whole lot to talk about today other then the very pleasant temperatures we are expecting. Therefore, I want to look ahead to the weekend where we have the potential to see the warmest weather so far this year. Here is a look at what some of the models are predicting for temperatures on Saturday.Look at the widespread mid and upper 90's for the eastern half of South Dakota. If this were to come true, it would be the warmest day in South Dakota as a whole in a couple of years.

This is a little bit different model. The red line is the temperature line which shows it climbing to over 100 degrees on Saturday in Sioux Falls. The last time we managed to hit 100 degrees was back in July of 2006 so it's been a while. The good news for those that don't like the heat (including myself) is that a lot of components have to come together for this to happen. As of right now, I would say that it's a pretty slim possibility. But I have been surprised before.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Video Of Strong Storms Tonight

We had a viewer, Zach, from Pierre send us in some video he shot during the storms tonight.



You can see things are looking pretty intense. We're still seeing the chance for storms toward the East overnight - but for now (at least as of my writing this) things aren't getting going in our area. We'll be watching, so don't be surprised overnight to see storms nearby.

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

We've been talking quite a bit about storms lately... and after last night's and some more possible tonight, we will probably talk a little bit more. Should any larger storms pop up tonight we'll talk about those - but we do have one more viewer picture from a storm on Friday in Madison:

That was sent in by Corey Raymer in Madison. You can see a pretty well-formed storm there - and we saw a lot of those on Friday night.

Looking ahead... there is some much warmer air on the way - possibly arriving by Friday. We'll be watching that one pretty closely. 90s could make it as far east as Sioux Falls - but it could all change. Right now the computer models are having some issues with this next warm-up, but we're seeing signs of 90s if not by Friday then at least by Saturday. We'll see how it all plays out!

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Another Warm One

Temperatures today will likely be at or slightly above average for the 2nd day in a row. This hasn't happened in over 6 weeks so it may seem a bit warmer out there then it actually is just because we are not used to it. Notice in the picture below that many highs in western and central SD are going to be in the 90'sBut this wont last long as temperatures will fall tomorrow and likely again on Wednesday. This will put highs almost 10 degrees below average once again.

Forecast Highs Tuesday:

Forecast Highs Wednesday:~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Sunday Storm Video

Here's the storm that went through Alexandria and passed just south of Sioux Falls:


This is the storm that came through Sioux Falls during the 10pm news, a LOT of lightning:

If you've got any pictures of the damage or the hail from these storms, send them to weather@kdlt.com - we'd love to see them!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Storms Rolling In - Severe Potential This Evening

These little green and yellow blobs are some weaker popcorn thunderstorms that are trying to develop. Some of these could have small hail and some strong wind gusts as they are forming along a cold front that is bringing the winds.

These are the storms in ND moving down towards NE South Dakota - these ones seem to be packing a bit more punch than the ones in western SD. Along the SD-ND border is where more severe weather is expected but isolated thunderstorms can be expected throughout the state over the next four hours and then the chance will taper off as the sun begins to set.

We're under a "Slight" risk of severe weather basically north of I-90 through tonight, issued by the Storm Prediction Center:

As for tomorrow - expect another warm day, but not as hot as today - expect temperatures to be near normal before another cold front dips through on Monday night, and then we're back to temperatures in the 70s!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

It's Official

We've been talking about the cool July temperatures for some time now... and it's official, it has been one for the record books.

The NWS in Sioux Falls put out this statement:

"AT THE REGULAR REPORTING CLIMATE SITES OF SIOUX FALLS... SIOUX CITY... AND HURON... JULY AVERAGED OUT WITHIN THE TOP FIVE COOLEST JULYS ON RECORD... GOING BACK TO THE LATE 1800S.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE STATISTICS FOR EACH SITE...
****AT SIOUX FALLS... IT WAS THE 4TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 68.6 DEGREES OR 4.4 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE AVERAGE DAILY HIGH OF 79.5 DEGREES TIED THE YEAR OF 1950 FOR THE THIRD COOLEST AVERAGE MAXIMUM ON RECORD IN JULY. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS IN 1992 WITH A CHILLY AVERAGE OF 65.5 DEGREES.
****AT SIOUX CITY... IT WAS THE 5TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 70.2 DEGREES... 4.4 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. MOST OF THIS WAS DUE TO THE AVERAGE DAILY LOW OF 58.7 DEGREES... WHICH WAS THE SECOND COOLEST AVERAGE MINIMUM ON RECORD IN JULY. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS IN 1992 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 68.6DEGREES.
****AT HURON... IT WAS ALSO THE 5TH COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WITH AN AVERAGE TEMPERATURE OF 68.5 DEGREES OR 4.9 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. THE COOLEST JULY ON RECORD WAS AGAIN IN THE VERY COOL JULY OF1992 WITH AN AVERAGE OF 65.1 DEGREES."


Similar story from the NWS office in Aberdeen:

"During the month of July, temperatures across much of the Northern Plains, including portions of South Dakota and west-central Minnesota were well below normal . Aberdeen, Watertown and Pierre all ended up being in the top 10 for the coldest Julys on record.
A few other interesting heat related tidbits from this “cool” July are listed below:
---Aberdeen has failed to reach 90 F this July. This is only the third time this has occurred since 1893 (the other years were 1915, 1962, and 1996).
---The highest temperature recorded in Watertown this July has been 83 F. This is the “coolest” monthly maximum temperature ever recorded in July. Records in Watertown date back to 1893.
---Like the summer of 2008, Pierre has yet to record a 100 F temperature during the summer of 2009. In fact, the last time Pierre reached 100 F was on 4 September 2007. Since 1933, Pierre has never experienced back to back summers when the temperature failed to reach 100 F."

It was the 5th coldest July in Aberdeen with an average temperature of 67.4 degrees.
In Watertown it was the 4th coolest July, averaging 65.7 degrees.
Pierre had an average high of 70.4 degrees, which was the 4th coldest on record.


I've gotta just say brr - but it has been nice to enjoy the mild temperatures - I love fall weather, so for me, this has been great! If you miss the summer weather however - enjoy tomorrow - here's a look at one particularly "warm" model:The maroon colored area is forecasting a high near 97 degrees . . . so watch out central SD! You'll need the fans and AC cranked up to deal with that heat since it'll feel like such a shock compared to what we've seen as far as temperatures go.

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka