Fire Weather in the Central and Southern Plains; Pacific Storms Impacting the West

Gusty to high winds and low relative humidity will bring elevated to critical fire weather to the central and southern Plains into Wednesday. Two Pacific storms will impact the western U.S. into Wednesday with gusty winds, low elevation rain, and heavy mountain snow. Read More >

A narrow, but intense snowband developed over eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota from mid-morning through early evening on 18 March 2014. The graphic below shows the extent of the snow band around 1pm CDT. At this time, the most intense portion of the band was only about 20-30 miles wide, but was producing snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour! As a result, a very tight snowfall gradient was observed across the area. For example, Watertown, SD only picked 0.1" of snow while Clear Lake, SD picked up a whopping 10.5"! A graphical snowfall map and a few tabular snowfall listings are also provided below.

Clear Lake, SD - 10.5"
5 SE Revillo, SD - 7.0"
Estelline, SD - 6.0"
Correll, MN - 6.0"
Wheaton, MN - 2.8"
Artichoke Lake, MN - 2.0"
Milbank, SD - 0.5"
Watertown, SD - 0.1"

Image 1: KABR Reflecitivity at 1pm CDT:

Image 2: Storm Total Snowfall Graphic:

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Fire Weather in the Central and Southern Plains; Pacific Storms Impacting the West

Banded Snowfall Event on 18 March 2014