(Climate) Winter weather finally arrived (for a long holiday weekend visit) in South Dakota. Snow and wind affected travel over Veteran’s Day weekend and cold temperatures came along with the wintry weather. Snowfall totals in the northeast on Nov 11-12 were highest around Webster with about five inches. Most other locations in the region reported less than two inches of snow. Some warmer areas had icy conditions as well. The northwest was dry this week. Precipitation totals were about one-tenth to one-half inch moisture in the west central. The northeast and east central regions received about one-half to one inch of moisture for the week.
The week started out very warm, and despite cold temperatures over the weekend, the 7-day temperature was above average. The west was about two to four degrees warmer than the weekly average, and the east was generally one to three degrees above average.
On Nov 13, high winds came across the state with highest wind gusts reported at Reliance (81 mph). There were a handful of locations reporting gusts in the 70+ mph range at McLaughlin, Trail City, Midland and other areas in the northwest and south-central regions. (Laura Edwards)
(Weather)
Potential
for critical conditions:
Elevated
fire weather conditions are likely on Tuesday and Wednesday with western SD
being the primary threatened area. Tuesday will see the highest danger with the
strongest winds and lowest RHs and a Fire Weather Watch is in effect for
southwestern SD. (Darren Clabo)
(Fire/Fuels) The fuels in the Black Hills area remain relatively
unchanged, the grass and timber litter categories are susceptible to ignition
and fire spread. The Badger Clark Fire in CSP was wind driven with 3–5-foot
flame lengths in the grass and 2-foot flame lengths in the timber litter. The
1000-hour fuels did not consume very well and were easy to mop up. With the
reduced daylight (we are losing 2 to 3 minutes of sunlight per day) the burn
window is significantly shorter, but as usual at this time of the year fires
will spread with the wind. It looks like Tuesday and Wednesday could be days to
watch with significant wind gusts and RHs in the 20s. (James
Bachelor)
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