© AP Photo/Argus Leader,Elisha Page
Snowplow in Sioux Falls, South Dakota
What was supposed to be a few inches of snow on Friday turned into a deluge that blanketed parts of Sioux Falls in more than a foot of the white stuff and caused travel headaches throughout the day.
Fourteen inches of snow were reported in the southwest quadrant of the city by Friday evening, the National Weather Service office said. On the other side of town, Sioux Falls Regional Airport recorded 7.1 inches by 6 p.m.
The numbers shattered the previous snowfall record for Nov. 20, which was measured at 3.8 inches in 1975.
Other parts of southeast South Dakota had a
variety of snowfall levels. In Harrisburg, one area measured a whopping 17 inches of snow, while Huron did not see a single flake, said National Weather Service meteorologist Kyle Weisser.
Actual snowfall blew past projected levels out of the water. On Wednesday, forecasters predicted less than one inch of snow for the Sioux Falls area. By Thursday, the prediction amount had risen to between one and three inches and again to four to six inches by Friday morning.
Sioux Falls' unforeseen influx of snow is mostly due to a large snow band that was supposed to be concentrated between Sioux Falls and Sioux City but ended up drifting further north, according to the National Weather Service.
"That snow band shifted north about 10 to 15 miles (more) than we expected," meteorologist Jennifer Hacker said. "Those extreme values are really difficult to forecast."
Comment: This is the third 'once-in-a-century' drought the region has had in 15 years... As with the explosion in wildfires in North America, the Arctic, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, we suspect that the vast majority of these fires are not man-made.