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It is Severe Weather Awareness Week in South Dakota and Wednesday, April 24th is the day of the statewide tornado drill. A test Tornado Watch will be issued at 10 am and a test Tornado Warning will be issued at 10:15 am. Sirens will sound across the state of South Dakota when the test Tornado Warning is issued. In addition, you will likely get an alert on your phone or mobile device. This is the time to plan for severe weather. Know your shelter and be sure kids know where to go and what to do when severe weather strikes.

Another very important part of your severe weather safety plan is having a weather radio. Get a weather radio! A weather radio will wake you when severe weather strikes at night. Weather radios are different now. A weather radio with SAME technology (which is almost all of the new weather radios you will find on the market today) will only activate when severe weather is impacting your area.

If you need a weather radio, or if you have one but need help with programming, we’d love to give you a hand. This Friday from 11 am until 1 pm, Phil Schreck will be at the downtown Nyberg’s Ace programming weather radios. Next Monday from 5 pm until 7 pm, I will be at the 41st and Minnesota Nyberg’s Ace to help you program your weather radio. Bring your weather radio from home, or you can get one there (they’ll be on sale.) It doesn’t matter where you got your weather radio, we just want to be sure you have one and that it’s properly set and ready to go for the upcoming severe weather season.

We are headed into a really nice Easter weekend. It all starts today with sunshine and high temps in the mid 60s in Sioux Falls and locations east of the James River. Most of central and western South Dakota will reach the upper 60s to low 70s this afternoon.

Saturday will be the nicest day of the weekend and will actually feel like summer. Once again there will be plenty of sunshine with afternoon temperatures soaring into the low 80s.

Easter Sunday will start with sunshine, but clouds will increase during the afternoon with a slight chance of scattered showers and thundershowers by mid to late afternoon. Sunday will definitely be cooler than Saturday, but still Pleasant with high temps in the mid 60s.

Clouds and scattered showers will continue into Monday, but the rest of next week will be dry and mild. High temps will remain in the low 60s Monday and Tuesday and warm to the upper 60s to low 70s by Wednesday and Thursday.

A powerful winter/spring storm will impact much of our region over the next several days. Across most of South Dakota and large portions of Minnesota and Nebraska heavy snowfall amounts of 12 to 20 or more inches will combine with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph to create whiteout blizzard conditions. In Sioux Falls and locations south and east of Sioux Falls, there will be heavy rain today, tonight and tomorrow with lesser amounts of snow and blowing snow late tomorrow, tomorrow night into Friday.

Snow has already started across much of central and northern South Dakota. Snow will continue today with wind increasing throughout the day. Heavy snow with strong wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph will be likely later today, tonight and tomorrow into Friday morning. Travel conditions will deteriorate very quickly across much of central and northern South Dakota throughout the day. A Blizzard Warning is in effect for much of central South Dakota from this morning through Friday morning. Further east, along and east of the James River, a Blizzard Warning will go into effect early this evening and continue through Friday morning.

For Sioux Falls and points to the south and east, today will be mostly rain with intermittent periods of freezing rain, sleet and snow. Rain will continue tonight with periods of freezing rain, sleet and snow toward morning. Tomorrow will start with a mix of rain, freezing rain and snow. Precipitation will change to all snow tomorrow afternoon with snow continuing tomorrow night into Friday. Sioux Falls could get 2 to 4 inches of wet, slushy snow by late tomorrow afternoon with additional snow accumulation Thursday night into Friday.

This is an extremely dangerous winter storm, especially for locations north and west of Sioux Falls that will get heavy snow and strong wind. Heavy snow and whiteout blizzard conditions will make travel impossible from later today, through tomorrow into Friday. Stay tuned for the very latest updates.