South Dakota: Hurricane Wind Gusts, 3 Feet of Snow

UPDATE (8 PM): Chris Burt [JessePedia], Author of "Extreme Weather" writes:

The amount has been updated to 45.7" as of a moment ago. Some video of blizzard conditions in Rapid City is available at right. Briefly, this situation occurred due to "upsloping" in the Black Hills [Google Map], an isolated mountain range in the western part of the state (in meteorology, when air rises, it becomes more humid, and more precip falls).

Here you can see the strong winds coming into the mountains from the Northwest:

So the new list of amounts at or over 20 inches in South Dakota is:

Deadwood, SD: 45.7" Harding & Lawrence County, SD: 24.0" Pennington County, SD: 20.0"

The highest amounts from surrounding states are:

Afton, WY: 21.0" Rushville, NE: 12.0" Towner, ND: 9.0" Meagher County, MT: 7.0"

Rapid City reported a wind gust of 105 and another of 109 mph today, but based on the graphs, I don't believe it. Other than those reports, their gusts were near 60 during that time. Mitchell is reporting 74 mph right now, and has had increasing winds; it's possible this reading is valid. ORIGINAL POST:

Blog reader Bart points out that Rapid City, South Dakota is gusting to 61 mph at 10 AM Eastern (down from a high of 76 mph, hurricane force,* earlier this morning). It's not alone - Ellsworth Airforce Base, SD is reporting a 58 mph gust with "heavy snow / blowing snow." Some spots have reported over 3 feet of snow (see below). Aaaaaah... the Northern Plains in winter. :)

Pinnacles RAWS gusted to 60 mph while Porcupine RAWS hit 73. There was a report of a 180-mph gust at Buffalo, but I don't believe it because it was inconsistent enough with previous gusts to get tagged by MesoWest's quality control, and, nearby stations are not reporting gusts over 100 mph, and the station is only at 3000 feet elevation.

Here's a map of the gusts at 10 AM Eastern via MESOWEST (The Government Mesonet):

This wind has been combined with heavy snow in some parts of the state to create blizzard conditions. The Silver City South Dakota Interstate cam looks pretty hopeless!

Here are some of the incredible snow amounts that we've seen already:

Deadwood, SD: 38.5" Afton, WY: 21.0" Lawrence, SD: 19.5" Alta, WY: 16.0"

This is part of the same storm system that's causing severe weather in the Southern Plains, shifting into the Southeast today. I've uploaded a "wallpaper" image of the (quite attractive) storm to your right, under "J's Breaking Weather News." There is also some video of the snow and storms in my Raw Video player at right.

*Saying "gusting over hurricane force" is a bit misleading, since hurricane force is determined by sustained winds. But it's ubiquity as a term causes me to allow it.

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