Monday, April 09, 2012
Follow us on Facebook now!
We are now cooperating with Laura Edwards from SDSU Extension to add climate/weather/ag information on a Facebook page. Like us now at www.facebook.com/SDSUclimate.
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
State record March?
Many individual day records were broken in March as were records for monthly averages at individual stations. What about the state as a whole? The previous state record average for March was in 1910 when the state average temperature was 46.3 F. Preliminary calculations indicate that March 2012 averaged 46.0 F. But there are more data coming in and calculations being done. Stay tuned.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
Soil temperature map
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We have a soil temperature map again. Find this under the Ag Data tab at:
http://climate.sdstate.edu/climate_site/soilTempMaps.html.
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Monday, March 12, 2012
Cocorahs March Madness 2012
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March Madness doesn't only happen in basketball with SDSU or your favorite team. We also have a March Madness competition in Cocorahs. This is the national volunteer precipitation monitoring effort (www.cocorahs.org) we cooperate with. During March we have a friendly competition among the states to sign up more new folks to report precitation. The effortcompetition is for fun. But the data gathered is critical to weather and climate monitoring across the state to tell how much rain we have had or how much we have not had like in our recent dry stretch. Both are critically important to understanding the details about precipitation across the state. Sign up now!
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Snow helps a little
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The snow event this week helped get a little moisture over most of the state the last two days. Amounts ranged to 0.4 inches in certain areas. This will help a little with surface soil moisture. But the overall dry soil issue will take more and heavier liquid events.
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Friday, January 13, 2012
Stations missing?
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Some of your favorite stations missing? We have lost communications due to a variety of issues with local building projects interrupting our signal and other issues. We have a new staff member on board to work on station communications. Look for stations to be coming back in the next couple weeks.
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
Record highs
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Obviously many daily record highs have been/are being set. Today several all time record highs for January at individual stations may fall. The all time state record high in January appears to be 79 at Spearfish on 19 January 1921. That one looks to be safe.
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Updates completed
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Server updates have been completed today. Please let us know of any additional problems you find.
Happy New Year!
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Climate site down
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The climate site will be down for 1-2 hours on Saturday morning 12/31 for server updates. We apologize for any issue this presents. We will have it back on-line as soon as possible.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Brown Christmas
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Is a brown Christmas that uncommon across the state? Not really. See this link from the NWS. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=fsd&storyid=76391&source=0.
Somewhat less than 50/50 across the south and somewhat more in the northeast. Most of the state has had accumulating snow so far this winter. But except for in the Black Hills we have not carried over snow for an extended period. For current snow conditions, see: http://nohrsc.noaa.gov/interactive/html/map.html.
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Friday, December 09, 2011
Record weather impact year
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NOAA is reporting a record year for weather impacts with a large number of weather-related disasters. http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/index.html.
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Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Snow chances?
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We are getting a later start on our snow pack statewide - though most are not disappointed in that. North central and far southeast SD have a few inches on the ground while most of the state reports less. This situation will probably hold for at least another week. Computer models start to hint at some changes mid late next week. But for the time being enjoy the open winter.
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Friday, October 21, 2011
NOAA winter outlook
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NOAA has released its winter outlook indicating potential conditions for the US and the northern Plains. The indications are increased chances for below average temperatures and increased chances of above average precipitation over South Dakota due a resurgence of La Nina – cooling of waters along the equatorial Pacific. One thing to remember is that these outlooks are based on probabilities indicating chances of temperature and precipitation conditions. For example on temperature, northeast SD has a better than 40% chance of being below average temperature. That leaves about a 33% chance of being near average and a 27% chance of being above average. Because of volatility in the system, outlooks cannot be overly specific in the chances. See: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20111020_winteroutlook.html
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Thursday, September 15, 2011
Dodged a bullet?
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Temperatures did not fall quite as far as forecast last night. Warm soil temperatures might have helped a little. Many places in the eastern part of the state fell below freezing last night. But most of the lowest temperatures were around 30 F. While this may have done in horticultural plants, row crops may have escaped in large part. We will have to wait over the next couple days to see what damage appears.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Freeze watch
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A freeze watch has been issued for the far northeast corner into east central SD for Wednesday night-Thursday AM. Temperatures look like they will be very close to sub-freezing, which could end hort crops. Field crops could survive if not stressed too much. Watch for updated NWS forecasts www.weather.gov.
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Monday, September 12, 2011
First round of cold air
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The first main round of cold air for the fall will pass over this week. Temperatures will fall into the 40s in the next couple nights with 30s very possible in the northeast to east central Wednesday night. Watch updated forecasts for the chance for frost in your area and take action as needed to protect horticultural plants. Right now temperatures do not look serious enough to harm field crops. Some areas will likely come close to this temperature.
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Friday, August 12, 2011
D1 Introduction
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This week's US Drought Monitor introduced a small area of D1 (Moderate Drought) over a couple counties in southeast SD. This is in response to 30-60 days of dryness and reports of yield loss on some corn fields in the area.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Record precipitation
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Many stations have set daily record precipitation amounts in the last couple days as 4-6"+ has fallen in areas from Pierre to Gregory to Huron. The largest total so far is the Cocorahs observer south of Burke, who reported 6.50" of precipitation this AM amid a larger areas of 4"+. This would be the largest total for that county and among the largest 24 hr totals in the state's history.
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Friday, May 20, 2011
New outlooks - countinued cool and wet for now
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The new long range outlooks were released yesterday (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov). Though La Nina seems to be officially gone now, its impacts will linger a bit longer. The cool wet conditions have a good likelihood of continuing into June statewide. Later in the summer chances for staying cool are highest in the east, while the west has only equal chances for below/above average temperature. There are no precipitation indications later in the summer for the whole state.
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Thursday, May 19, 2011
Spring getting wetter
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Flood watches are out for the western quarter of the state because of potential for flooding with heavy rains over the next couple days. The eastern part of the state could see some heavier rains into the weekend. While we have had ample water around this spring, we have not been above average in precipitation in most locations except for the north central (and somewhat in the east). Check out this link for precipitation comparisons so far this spring. http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/maps/current/index.php?action=update_daterange&daterange=60d
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