Depending on where you live, there will be a variety of weather conditions today in KELOLAND.  In the east, expect a quiet and pleasant day with highs in the mid 70s to around 80 and lots of sunshine.  However, west of the Missouri River toward Rapid City, scattered strong to severe t-storms will develop late this afternoon and evening.  We’ll keep an eye on those storms for those of you in the west today…and we may repeat this same pattern tomorrow.  Pierre is sandwiched in the middle with a chance of scattered t-storms tonight and tomorrow.
 
The rest of KELOLAND will see a chance of rain returning by Friday into the weekend.  It will not be raining all weekend…just scattered storms.  Highs will still be near or slightly below normal near 80 in the east with mid 80s across central and western SD.
 
 
Click here for a forecast for your specific location!
 

Brian Karstens

Good morning,
 
It looks like another pleasant day in KELOLAND with mostly sunny skies and basically dry weather in most areas other that a few widely scattered t-storms in the Black Hills.  Highs will range from the upper 70s across parts of western MN to the low and mid 90s in western SD.  Dewpoints will be much lower this week too…making it more comfortable outside. 
 
It looks like widely scattered t-storms may develop in the west again tomorrow, but most areas in the east will remain dry through midweek.  There is a chance of rain again by Friday into the 4th of July weekend…but it isn’t a high chance right now.  The humidity levels will start to climb again by next weekend…but that shouldn’t come as a surprise for this time of year.
 
Have a great day and enjoy the nice weather!
 
Click here for a forecast for your specific location!
 
 
Brian Karstens

Today was a Top 10 day across South Dakota.  Here is hoping you found some way to get outside and soak up some of that great sunshine!  Temperatures were comfortable as were humidity levels and it was dry from border to border.  Going into the week we will see our weather turn more active in the west with slight chances of thundershowers every day.  An area of low pressure will park over the western US, and bring those chances rotating through the west on a daily basis.  The weather will generally get more quiet the farther you get from western KELOLAND. In fact eastern SD should stay mostly dry into Friday.  We are going to introduce a chance of some thundershowers for next weekend.  It doesn’t look like anything major at this point but there is enough activity around that I felt we had to have those little chances in there.  For temperatures there will be a sharp contrast from west to east with HOT temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s for the west and lower 80s for the east.
 
Have a great week!

A nice looking Sunday is on tap.  We will see sunny skies statewide and dry conditions.  It will be cooler in the east with warmer temperatures for western and central South Dakota.  Either way it should be pretty comfortable with pretty limited humidity.  Into the week we will stay fairly quiet before a chance of storms moves into especially western SD for the middle of the week.  The rest of the state will stay dry until the end of the week roles around.  As of now the 4th of July holiday is really up in the air as far as the forecast.  Lets hope it will be as nice as this weekend!
 
Have a great Sunday!

Here is a video going over some video clips from our latest storm chase.  You can find other videos from this storm in our U-Share video gallery HERE.  Remember you can always submit your own pictures and videos into the U-Share Gallery.

We had quite a change across the area today with much less humidity and cooler temperatures.  The clouds of earlier this morning cleared out pretty quick over most of the state leaving us with abundant sunshine for most of the day.  That sun did produce enough energy to pop a few isolated thundershowers this afternoon and a few of those have been producing some small hail and plenty of thunder and lightning.  Late this evening those storms should die out or leave the area.  Before then just about everyone in eastern South Dakota will have a slight chance of seeing a quick moving thundershower.  Overnight we clear out again and by tomorrow we will break out into full sunshine.  Temperatures will stay pretty comfortable in the upper 70s to lower 80s.  It will be another fairly breezy day, though the state will stay dry.  Monday also looks dry across the state with slightly warmer temperatures.  For the rest of the week the east looks to stay mostly dry with a few chances of thundershowers for the west.  It will also be much warmer across the west than it will be in eastern South Dakota.
 
Have a great rest of your weekend!

Relief will be in the air as we go through this weekend.  Dew point values and thus the amount of moisture in the air will steadily drop as we go through the day today.  Temperatures will also be more comfortable in the 80s.  As far as showers and storms we have just a slight chance in the far east early, and then a redeveloping chance for northern SD for the afternoon hours.  There will be a slight chance that some of those storms may produce some hail so we will keep an eye on them.  Both Sunday and Monday will feature ample sunshine and dry conditions with temperatures staying pretty comfortable.  It will be a breezy weekend so hold onto your hat! For next week the weather stays pretty quiet and dry for most of the week, there will be a few slight chances of showers especially for the second half of the week.
 
Have a great weekend!!!

Good morning,
 
Widely scattered showers and t-storms have developed early this morning, but most areas are quiet this morning.  However, more storms are in the forecast later today as a cold front moves across western SD.  Those storms could contain heavy rain…so a flash flood watch has been issued for Rapid City, Pierre, and Aberdeen. 
 
Thunderstorms are most likely late this afternoon along a developing cold front in western SD.  Storms may also fire in the lower Missouri River Valley with the potential for isolated tornadoes.  One or two line segments of storms would then move to the east with large hail and damaging winds possible.  Once the front clears the region tomorrow morning, northwest winds will bring us lower humidity and cooler temperatures Saturday afternoon into Sunday. 
 
Click here for a forecast for your specific location!
 

Brian Karstens

The hardest part about being a storm chaser is actually finding the storm that will produce a tornado. That is where the skill is, because a storm chaser will waste a lot of time, burn a lot of gas, and risk speeding tickets if he or she waits for a tornado warning to be issued by the National Weather Service.
 
So how does one anticipate where a tornadic storm will form? Here at KELO, it starts with morning calls between the four meteorologists. We are looking at weather data and computer models. Models are not as helpful as one would think for storm chasing, because their resolution is not fine enough, and they require parameterizations (read: educated guesses) as to where and when convective storms will fire. So we are looking at the data to try to predict where we have the best instability and forcing for initiation, and try to determine whether there is sufficient wind shear for tornadoes to form.
 
As we go through the midday period, we narrow our target area. Often, there are two or three potential areas for development, so there can be inter-office debates between the four of us about which direction to send Dorothy, our mobile storm tracker. Dorothy will hit the road with a general direction of movement that will be fine-tuned as the afternoon goes along, and the atmosphere organizes with the solar heating of the day.
 
It can be a matter of hurry up and wait, because while the location of thunderstorm development is difficult to anticipate, the time of initiation is even more difficult to predict. Last Wednesday was a good example. Our storm chasers sat around in Huron for hours, waiting as an atmospheric boundary that was invisible to the naked eye (except for some cumulus clouds) took its time to produce a storm, and then a tornado.
 
Another fact of storm chasing is disappointment. Statistically, more chases end up in busts than in successful location of tornadoes. But we still chase on those hot summer days, because if a dangerous storm forms, we want to provide the best possible information for our viewers.