Record Precipitation in 2010 For Many Sites

As anyone who lives in the area probably knows, 2010 was a very wet year across southeastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northwestern Iowa. Looking at the available data, 45 National Weather Service observation locations (Airports, Cooperative Observers) in the area saw precipitation totals in 2010 that ranked in the top 5 on record, including 16 sites that established new record high yearly precipitaiton totals.

The following table shows these locations. Note that these values include preliminary data that could be subject to change, and that there are some missing reports for several sites in 2010. Also, most sites have missing data for some days, months, or years in the historical period of record (POR).

LOCATION	2010 Precip	Record Precip	Record Year	P.O.R.	2010 Rank	P.O.R. Normal	2010 % of Normal	Notes
Spencer, IA	45.16	42.51	1951	1895-	1st	27.99	161.3%
Hawarden, IA	44.28	40.17	1983	1926-	1st	26.52	167.0%
Marshall, MN	43.86	39.83	1993	1935-	1st	26.25	167.1%
Sioux Center, IA	42.96	39.74	1983	1899-	1st	27.70	155.1%
Akron, IA	42.95	42.95	1951	1927-	1st (tie)	27.10	158.5%
Wessington Springs, SD	41.36	34.13	1995	1893-	1st	22.68	182.4%
Rock Valley, IA	40.96	39.38	1983	1978-	1st	28.49	143.8%
Brookings, SD	39.80	33.12	2005	1894-	1st	21.52	184.9%
Flandreau, SD	39.47	37.65	2005	1893-	1st	23.78	166.0%
Pipestone, MN	38.99	38.60	1993	1898-	1st	25.09	155.4%
Minneota, MN	38.97	37.22	1993	1948-	1st	25.29	154.1%
Yankton, SD	38.84	38.20	1944	1932-	1st	24.54	158.3%
Sioux Falls, SD	38.26	36.11	1993	1893-	1st	25.53	149.9%
Howard, SD	38.15	36.00	1942	1893-	1st	22.38	170.5%
Forestburg, SD	37.04	36.41	1914	1893-	1st	21.47	172.5%	Missing 11/2010 and 12/2010
Wessington, SD	35.10	33.09	2007	1929-	1st	19.14	183.4%	Missing 11/2010
Sanborn, IA	45.76	46.02	1951	1914-	2nd	28.55	160.3%
Sioux Rapids, IA	42.34	43.25	1993	1941-	2nd	30.16	140.4%
Primghar, IA	41.21	42.49	1951	1895-	2nd	28.91	142.5%	Missing 23 days
Rock Rapids, IA	40.60	41.69	1944	1893-	2nd	26.72	151.9%
Marion, SD	39.10	39.74	1944	1901-	2nd	25.29	154.6%
Tracy, MN	38.12	40.64	1968	1912-	2nd	24.88	153.2%	Missing 2/2010
Lakefield, MN	37.59	39.06	2005	1996-	2nd	27.67	135.9%
Montrose, SD	35.47	36.90	1993	1963-	2nd	24.39	145.4%
Huron, SD	30.89	31.71	1962	1882-	2nd	20.06	154.0%
Windom, MN	41.03	44.84	2005	1905-	3rd	28.27	145.1%	Missing 15 days
Cherokee, IA	40.89	42.86	1938	1922-	3rd	28.56	143.2%
Lake Park, IA	37.22	50.16	1993	1912-	3rd	28.05	132.7%
Ocheyedan, IA	36.36	49.12	1993	1971-	3rd-tie	29.15	124.7%
Centerville, SD	35.61	42.53	1944	1897-	3rd	25.23	141.1%
Tyndall, SD	35.48	38.27	1944	1893-	3rd	23.97	148.0%
Canton, SD	35.41	37.09	1951	1896-	3rd	24.81	142.7%	Missing 17 days
Menno, SD	35.34	38.46	1944	1896-	3rd	23.86	148.1%
DeSmet, SD	35.07	36.85	1914	1893-	3rd	22.94	152.9%
Iroquois, SD	32.63	33.22	1972	1951-	3rd	20.97	155.6%
White Lake, SD	31.11	38.86	1962	1909-	3rd	20.28	153.4%
Chamberlain, SD	29.50	32.60	2007	1980-	3rd	23.28	126.7%
Sheldon, IA	41.53	46.02	1951	1899-	4th	28.57	145.4%
Lake Wilson, MN	34.95	46.90	1993	1973-	4th	27.26	140.1%
Colton, SD	36.21	41.01	1982	1978-	4th	27.60	131.2%
Alexandria, SD	33.81	34.80	193	1893-	4th	22.48	150.4%
Arlington, SD	33.21	35.11	1995	1929-	4th	23.83	139.4%
Mitchell, SD	33.10	36.14	1908	1896-	4th	22.26	148.7%
Sibley, IA	37.92	47.83	1979	1893-	5th	28.60	132.6%	Missing 16 days
Worthington, MN	35.92	43.45	1993	1971-	5th	28.95	124.1%