A powerful winter storm will continue to impact the Northern Plains today, tonight and into early tomorrow. A Blizzard Warning is in effect for a large portion of Central and Northeastern South Dakota through tonight. Heavy snowfall amounts of a foot or more will combine with 30 to 40+ mph wind gusts to create white out blizzard conditions across the warning area through tonight and into tomorrow morning. A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for much of Southeastern and East Central South Dakota, Western and Central Minnesota and Northern and central Nebraska for heavy snow and strong wind that will create near blizzard conditions today, tonight and into tomorrow morning.

Sioux Falls
A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for the Sioux Falls area. In Sioux Falls and across extreme Southeastern South Dakota, Southwestern Minnesota and Northwestern Iowa, much of the precipitation with this system has fallen in the form of rain. That will change this morning as temperatures drop and the rain changes to snow. Snow will continue through this afternoon and tonight and will gradually decrease after daybreak tomorrow. Snowfall amounts across the Sioux Falls metro area will range from an inch or two in the southeast around 5 to 8+ inches across Northwestern Minnehaha county. The wind will pick up this afternoon and strong northerly wind gusts to between 30 and 40 mph will create blowing snow through tonight into tomorrow morning.

A Flood Watch remains in effect for Union County in South Dakota and much of Northwestern Iowa through late tonight. By the time this storm ends, up to 2 inches of rain could fall in these locations in that could cause some streams and rivers to rise to near flood stage.

Snow will end, the wind will decrease and conditions will gradually improve tomorrow morning. We might even see a little sunshine by tomorrow afternoon. The weekend ahead will be dry and cold. By Saturday morning, low temperatures will drop below zero with high temps only reaching the teens on Saturday afternoon. Sunday will be a bit warmer.

We are keeping an eye on another system that could bring a little light snow late Sunday night into Monday. It looks like it will be a cold start to 2019. New Year’s Day will be partly cloudy with morning temperatures below zero and highs only in the single digits.