National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Inclement Weather in the Pacific Northwest; Severe Thunderstorms in the Southeast; Impending Winter Storm

An approaching storm will bring rain and high elevation snow to Pacific Northwest through the weekend. Isolated severe thunderstorms are possible across parts of the Southeast today into this evening as a low strengthens over the Southeast. This system will form into a winter storm on Sunday that will bring heavy snow, high winds, and coastal flooding to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast into Monday. 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.