National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Major Winter Storm to Bring Heavy Snow and Ice Impacts; Dangerously Cold in the North-Central U.S.

A large, long-duration winter storm is expected to bring widespread heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies/Plains into the Mid-South beginning Friday, spreading eastward to the Mid-Atlantic and New England this weekend. An Arctic front will bring frigid temperatures and gusty winds that will lead to dangerous wind chills from the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Read More >

Below is a listing of the climate records on New Year's Day for Rapid City, Gillette, Lead, Winner, Lemmon, Sundance, Spearfish, Newcastle, Hot Springs, and Custer. Record high temperatures have reached the 50s to mid-60s. Of these sites, Lemmon has been the coldest, dipping down to -31 degrees in 1928. In 1970, Lead had a whopping 35 inches of snow on the ground.

Also listed is the weather data for the past ten New Year's Days in Rapid City and Gillette. Very little snow has fallen on January 1st for the past decade, though minor accumulations of snow occurred in 2022 and 2023. Temperatures on New Year's Day in 2022 were very chilly, with highs in the single digits to teens and lows below zero. Last year, we experienced a relatively mild and dry January 1st.