Remembering a Historic South Dakota Snowstorm (credit: This Day in Weather History)

DISCUSSION: As we turn the clocks back to October 19th, 1982, we arrive at a historic snowstorm event in North-Central U.S. history.  It was on this date in October of 1982 that an early fall snowstorm dropped 3 to 12 inches of wet snow over the southeastern corner of South Dakota. As quoted by the "This Day in Weather History" team that "wet snow combined with the gusty winds of 20 to 40 mph dropped wind chills to around zero. Numerous trees snapped downing power lines. Power outages were extensive from Vermillion to Mitchell in South Dakota. Thunder rumbled, and lightning flashed amidst the height of the snowstorm. Almost a foot of snow fell in northern Union and southern Lincoln counties."  Thus, it goes without saying that this was a fairly high-impact winter weather event since there was a nasty combination of accumulating heavy, wet snow along with gusty winds which led to widespread regional power outages.

To learn more about other past historic weather events from around the world, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz