National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rain From the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic; Heat Wave Begins This Weekend

Strong to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain will impact portions of the central Plains into the Upper Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic through the weekend. A stretch of unusually hot and humid weather is expected across portions of the central U.S. and the Southeast beginning this weekend and continuing through next week. The heat may reach dangerous levels, particularly mid to late next week. Read More >

Overview

Beginning on the evening of the 26th of December, a strong low pressure system lifted up from southeast Colorado/southwest Kansas and into eastern Nebraska/western Iowa and finally into Wisconsin on Friday the 28th of December.  This generated two distinct rounds of snowfall and mixed precipitation.  The first occurred the evening of the 26th and dumped snow mostly on the western two thirds of the South Dakota, along with some freezing rain in the central part of the state.  The second affected primarily the eastern half of the state with areas along and east of the Coteau being the hardest hit.  Along with the second wave of snow, very strong winds created whiteout blizzard conditions for most of the northeast quadrant of South Dakota.  Widespread storm total snowfalls of 6-12" were recorded across much of the state. 

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Snowfall Reports Over the Duration of the Storm
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