So are you liking the rain? Or do you want some sunshine. We put our zoomed in Futurecast model that we showed during our 5 & 6pm shows onto our KDLT Weather Blog to show you something good in the forecast. You notice a lot of rain and some snow showing up toward the Northwest - but notice the clouds clearing away toward about Tuesday night to Wednesday. We should start to see some sunshine by around that time.

Another thing you'll notice as we head into the weekend is that we are getting to the point where our first freeze of the season seems to be on the way. We are going to see very cool air above us, with clearing skies and little wind - that will likely equal a hard freeze for a lot of us. You can see we circled the lows we're looking for as of now Saturday to Monday mornings:

Looking chilly out there! For now just keep the umbrella handy and stay dry!

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

It's Raining Again But Do We Really Need It?

More rain is faling in South Dakota this morning which would make the second big storm in a week for the state. However, in many cases this time of the year, areas are very dry from a hot and evaporation full summer. But not in our case. It was a fairly and cool summer, leaving many feeling like we didn't really have a summer. Well, by all this talk about a wet summer, i've bet you have guessed that we don't really "need" the rain right now. In fact, the experts at the Climate Prediction Center agree. The long term rainfall index is extremely moist for almost all of the state through September 26th.Meanwhile, the short term index shows that our soil moisture at the preseent level is actually near normal. But with the recent rains I expect that the soil will become quite moistThe good news is that things look to dry out later this week.

~KDLT Meteorlogist Cody Matz

Snow and Rain Showers

Yes, that blue area I circled in pink is snow... keep in mind, this is our "Future Radar" but as temperatures drop as the sun has set, we'll see this start to happen in far western South Dakota and into North Dakota. Yesterday there were winter storm watches in effect, now there are only winter weather advisories just to the west of our viewing area. So now less snow is expected in the Dakotas as the threat for snow is now more off towards the Rocky Mountains.

So therefore our focus shifts more towards the rainfall we're expecting. We don't exactly need the rain, most areas are supposed to receive around 2 inches of rain for the entire month of October... many places have exceeded that, reached that point or are very close 2 inches of rain. JUST IN THE FIRST 3 DAYS OF OCTOBER! This is a look at how much rain folks in the southeast have seen:And now we're going to get even more... here's how much more rain we can expect to continue our wet start to the month:

Keep that umbrella handy!

~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Winter Storm Watch - Already?

Well I wanted to title this post Winter Storm Watch to get your attention, but the watch isn't for our area just yet. The watch is in effect for counties just to the west of us in the blue for Sunday night and into Monday. Chilly temperatures in our area tonight give us a frost advisory for folks in the south - the counties in periwinkle (or light purple). Another system is pushing towards our area that will bring yet another round of rain to our region Sunday night but as the Low moves to the north, the winds around it (counter-clockwise) will bring chilly temperatures down to portions of North Dakota and some areas in South Dakota. Here's how much snow one particular model is putting out for this storm:

Areas in the pink are expected to get 0-2 inches, the blue and yellow areas are supposed to get 2-4 inches, areas in green: 4-6 inches, and the gray turning to blue: anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow. Quite a bit in the forecast, thus the winter storm watch the NWS put out.

We're supposed to get a nice amount of rainfall from the same system... 1-2 inches is even expected in the northern portion of the state, with lesser amounts to the south.

Hope your umbrella's in good shape!
~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

P.S. Enjoy the brief dry period and slightly warmer temperatures that we'll have tomorrow!

Frost and Freeze - Another Chance

As the rain showers still linger... we'll see some evaporative cooling that will help drop temperatures down into the low 30s. There are frost advisories for Tripp and Mellette counties and freeze warnings for all the other counties to the west (in the turquoise). Expect a very chilly night across the area and we'll probably see more of these tomorrow night as well.

Just a quick summary on evaporative cooling: when rain falls... it starts to evaporate. Evaporation is a cooling process, it's the main reason feel cooler when we sweat. First of all, to Basically everything wants to be in balance, if something is hotter than the air around it, it wants to cool down, if something is cooler than the air around it, it wants to warm up. But each has to change temperatures a bit in order to restore that balance. So since sweat or rain is cooler than the air around it, the air must cool down a bit to get to the equilibrium in temperature. The rain/sweat also gets warmer in that process and thus evaporates. Since the air around the rain/sweat gets cooler, it makes our temperatures/bodies cooler.

We'll get a break in the action finally tomorrow before our next round starts up late Sunday night.

Stay warm!
~KDLT Meteorologist Jesse Ritka

Rainfall Totals & Future Rainfall

We're playing with some of our new weather technology, as you've probably noticed, in our KDLT Weather Center. One thing that is new for us is a product called Rain:Vision where we get a more high-resolution view of the rainfall totals around the region (and eventually you'll see Snow:Vision when the time comes...).





Here is what we're seeing so far:

As we look toward the future, you can see in the video below that we are looking for quite a bit more rainfall before things are said and done. We are still looking for rain to wrap around the northern end of the system and back into our area by just after midnight tonight and linger into the day tomorrow as well.

Stay dry, and have a great night outside!

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer

Rain Follows Boundaries

So this posting is a little off topic and a bit of a stretch but it is something that I have been noticing more and more over the last couple of years. There are many aspects of weather that seem to conform to "imaginary" man made boundaries. Now, this could just be a bunch of coincidences, but I just thought I would share it with you. So here's what I'm talking about. Look at the picture below, it is a radar image from overnight last night. See if you can see anything that seems very coincidental with how the rain is oriented.

It may be tough to see, or by now you have no idea what I'm talking about and you think I'm crazy. But look at the shape of the rain in far southwest Minnesota, Rock county MN to be exact. Notice how the shape of the rain lines up exactly to the shape of the southwest edge of MN. The rain basically makes a 90 degree angle at the same point the state does. Keep in mind that the border of MN at all those locations is just an imaginary line, absolutely no geological feature that makes up the state border. So the rain could not have conformed to a river valley or mountain top or something of that nature. I am becoming amazed how often I see this type of thing occurring. So just pay attention to not only the weather but other objects nature provides and see if you can spot a "coincidence" between nature and man made boundaries.

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz

"Slice" Through Storms

Watching some storms tonight - so far no severe storms but some tall clouds with small hail as a possibility.

We'll be watching - and make sure you send us your rainfall totals and any pictures you snap to weather@kdlt.com.

Have a good night!

~KDLT Chief Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer