National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Critical Fire Weather Conditions in the Plains; Heavy Snow in the Sierra and Northern Rockies

Gusty winds and warm, very dry conditions will lead to a Critical Risk of fire weather across much of the High Plains through Thursday. A Pacific storm system will bring strong winds and precipitation from the Pacific Northwest to the Northern Rockies, with heavy mountain snow in the Sierra-Nevada and northern Rockies. Heavy snow will continue in the northern Rockies on Thursday. Read More >

The following tables show the climate information for Rapid City, Gillette, Lead, Winner, Lemmon, Sundance, Spearfish, Newcastle, Hot Springs, and Custer on Thanksgiving, as well as the weather in downtown Rapid City and Gillette for the past 10 Thanksgiving Days. Record highs around the area have reached the mid-60s to upper 70s, with record lows generally in the teens below zero. Of the ten sites listed, precipitation is most likely in Lead, where precipitation has occurred on 37% of Thanksgivings, and snow has occurred 34% of Thanksgivings.

In 2023, Thanksgiving featured cool temperatures and accumulating snow, with several inches of snow across portions of northeastern Wyoming and southwestern South Dakota.