As drought conditions continue in South Dakota, many thoughts are in people's minds, will this continue into the planting and growing season which is fast approaching. The new drought monitor from Thursday put about 75 percent of the state in some type of drought, up from 65 percent from the previous week. Of that 46 percent of the state is in moderate drought with severe drought not too far.
The most recent mix bag of rain, snow and a few thunderstorms brought some moisture to the area but was limited.
Some locations in South Dakota saw minor precipitation with a few areas lucky to see around a quarter of an inch. Watertown was one of those locations with the Watertown Region Airport see precipitation amounts at 0.30" with even a trace of snow recorded. Other readings from Friday's event were Pierre with 0.19", Aberdeen with 0.05", Huron with 0.10", Buffalo at 0.05", Philip with 0.14", Rapid City Airport 0.02" and Mobridge with only a trace.
In the middle of last week, another storm system brought additional rain and snow to the region, but some areas missed out on the precipitation.
Photo Credit: South Dakota Highway Patrol - March 30th.
Slow down, increase following distance, wear your seatbelt, and move over for emergency personnel on the side of the road. Road conditions are snow covered and icy. This is on I-29 just north of Summit.
South Dakota Highway Patrol March 30th, 2022
As those going through the Summit area in the northeast, South Dakota found themselves in a winter wonderland on Wednesday. Sisseton received 0.10" of moisture that day and in the city of Watertown, 0.14" of moisture fell from the sky.
Traveling western, the storm system impacted the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, but minor amounts were found in the heart of the drought. A two-day total of 0.04" was reported in the far northwest corner of the state in Buffalo. Faith received a little more than Buffalo with 0.15" of precipitation and down in the city of Rapid City, a two-day total of 0.08" reported at the National Weather Service Office.
Looking ahead, a shoot of precipitation looks to move into the region on Sunday, but amounts don't look too impressive.
The northern side of South Dakota looks to see this round of rain/snow with the highest amount of around 0.10" looking to fall near the South Dakota and North Dakota border and down towards the Watertown and Brookings area.
Pushing ahead into the middle of the workweek, additional chances of precipitation moves into the picture. Below are a couple of snapshots of the Euro model for Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening. If you want to check out additional and updated weather model forecast maps, go to our Weather Maps to view the GFS (American), ECMEF (Euro), and GEM (Candian) models along with the short-term HRRR model.
To get a better look for your local area on the chances of precipitation and forecast amounts, visit our Forecast page.