The National Weather Service has about two-thirds of South Dakota under a Blizzard Warning starting this evening in western South Dakota and tomorrow morning for central South Dakota. Winter Storm Watches are still up for northeast, east-central, and back towards south-central regions of the state as these areas may see freezing rain before the snow. For more details on the weather headlines for your local area, check out Local Weather Alerts.
Forecast:
Precipitation will become more widespread over the west, mainly in the form of snow, by this evening.
By Tuesday morning, widespread snow in the west and the state's northern regions. Drizzle or freezing drizzle is expected for the southeast, and areas of snow, freezing rain, or a wintry mix for east-central South Dakota. During the morning, wind gusts up to 40mph are possible.
By Tuesday afternoon and evening, snow will continue for the west and north, with rain in the southeast. A mixture of freezing rain for east-central and parts of south-central South Dakota. By this time, the wind gusts could reach up to 50mph and expand in coverage. Some locations in the west could see wind gusts over 60mph by the evening hours.
Precipitation continues for Tuesday night as widespread snow continues for the west and north with areas of rain, freezing rain, a wintry mix, and snow for the far east. Widespread strong winds with wind gust over 60mph are possible.
By Wednesday, all the precipitation is expected to be snow and slowly come to an end from west to east. The winds, however, will be the strongest during this time period. Wind gusts up to 65mph are expected and covering more areas.
Forecast models are putting the heaviest snow from the central region of the state and back towards the southwest and into the Black Hills. These areas could easily see over a foot and a half of snow by the time this storm moves on out. Lesser amounts in east-central and southeast as some of the precipitation will drop in the form of rain, freezing rain, or even sleet before changing over to snow.
For details on your local forecast, check out our Forecast Page.