Heads Up!!

OK, so I realize that this is a little far away but it can have tremendous indirect impacts to local economies. A hurricane has now entered the Gulf of Mexico and is now imminent in making landfall in the southeast U.S. in the next 36 hours. Looks like it will likely make landfall in the panhandle of Florida sometime Tuesday morning. Its not expected to be a major hurricane however, any hurricane making landfall is a pretty big deal and can have impacts on what we pay for food, gas, and other commodities. So hopefully you don't have plans to head that direction in the near future!!

Wow did it get warm all of a sudden. Temperatures sky rocketed on your Thursday with highs some 5-20 degrees above normal. And I have more good news for those that don't like the cold, it will likely be even warm on Friday! Shorts and a t-shirt will do just fine Friday afternoon so get out and enjoy!

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Taurid Meteor Shower

I know I said I would probably talk about different cloud types today, but I forgot the Taurid Meteor Shower starts tonight! Around this time of the year, every year, we (the Earth) enter into a debris stream from Comet 2P/Encke. So the left over meteoroids (what they're called when they're in outerspace) from the Comet scrape across the Earth's atmosphere - that's when the meteoroids become meteors and then if they make it through our atmosphere, they become meteorites. This meteor shower lasts all the way until November12th! Check out the sky around midnight in the next upcoming nights for the meteors!
There is a little bummer about this shower however, there are only going to be roughly 5 meteors in the sky per hour, but they are going to be incredibly visible. According to SpaceWeather.com, Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. So it'll be a cool sight! Best place to look is away from city lights... look for the big dipper and then enjoy the show!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!

Today and tomorrow just remind me of the Beatles! My favorite band! :) The sun has arrived and it's going to stay in a good portion of our forecast!Somewhat a boring forecast for me, so it's leaving me wondering what to blog about today. So if you have any requests for blog topics over the next few days... things you want to know about the weather or things you want to know about meteorologists, please leave a comment and I'll try and touch on those subjects since there I don't want to be repetitive this week. Though I suppose with a forecast full of sunshine and warmer temperatures, you can't go wrong. I think tomorrow I'll touch on cloud types and differences between some of the main ones. Unless you have a better idea ;)

Enjoy the rays!
~KDLT Meteorlogist Jesse Ritka

Snow Melt

Just a few scattered showers are expected today along the eastern third of our viewing area that will not add up to much in the rain gage - good luck trying to read it if you do get any sprinkles since I'm only expecting a few hundredths of an inch to a tenth of an inch maximum. After the light showers push out, the clouds will follow and we'll see a nice clearing pattern today. A lot more sunshine off towards the western side of the state where there is actually still some snow on the ground.This is a look at the DOT network at Hardy Station looking North on US 85.

That little blue dot along the western South Dakota border is the snow that's still left from the system that passed through last week, leaving 23+ inches of snow in Lead. A big melting trend today on the western side of the state, over here in our region - a clearing trend as we go through the afternoon hours today. The clear skies will stick around for the rest of the work week as well, makes you just want to bottle up this work week and save it!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Cooler Today but it Will Look Nice

Like Cody said, it was a nice warm up yesterday with temperatures in the 60s! Here's a look at the Sioux Falls Almanac:

Now we won't quite see temperatures this warm today, but temperatures will be right around average for this time of year, and we'll keep that rainfall total for the month of November at 0.00" Tuesday will be the best chance for scattered rainshowers during the work week, but it doesn't look like we'll see much add up in the rain gages. Great news for folks bringing in the harvest and for all of us who like to see the sun.

Enjoy those rays!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Warmer Today!!

If you have stepped outside today I'm sure you have noticed a big difference. Just take a look below and your observations are confirmed. It is 10 to 22 degrees warmer now (3pm) then at the same time yesterday across most of our area. What a treat this is!

But don't get too fired up about the warmer weather because it will cool down again tomorrow. But hopefully you got a chance to enjoy it.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

Record Breaking October

It was a cool and wet month of October to say the least. In most cases, cities across the state saw one of the coldest and wettest Octobers on record. Here are some of the numbers from the National Weather Service.~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz