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Thunderstorms and Heavy Rainfall in the Mississippi Valley; Heavy Rain Continues in Southeast Florida

A cold front approaching the Mississippi Valley will bring heavy rainfall and isolated severe thunderstorms to the region. Thunderstorms will have the potential to produce isolated severe wind gusts and perhaps a brief tornado or two. Scattered to numerous showers and storms will bring another day of localized flooding to south Florida. Read More >

Overview

A powerful low-pressure system slowly moved across the central plains on December 25-26, 2023. Plentiful moisture wrapped around the low into western SD, bringing heavy snow to parts of our area. The highest amounts were in the northern Black Hills, where over a foot of snow fell. A tight pressure gradient resulted in very strong winds on the western SD plains, with gusts of 50-60 mph creating blizzard conditions along with much blowing and drifting snow. The highest wind gust was 72 mph at the Rapid City Airport. As warm air filtered into the region behind the low, snow changed to freezing rain, which caused some icing across parts of northwestern SD. Much of Interstate 90 was closed for about 12 hours, and even afterwards, no travel was advised, especially in the northern Black Hills.

Make sure you click on the Radar and Satellite tab below. Check out the water vapor loop, which gives perspective on how much area the storm covered across the United States.

 

Blizzard in New Underwood, SD
New Underwood, SD
Courtesy Amy Hakola
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