Sioux Falls is having one of its snowiest seasons with latest winter storm, NWS says
As of midnight Wednesday, snowfall totals recorded by the National Weather Service Sioux Falls were reportedly about 13 inches with the latest round of major winter weather.
That's added to a winter that's already seen significant snowfall in Sioux Falls.
Kyle Weisser, senior meteorologist with National Weather Service Sioux Falls, said that assuming the city ended up with roughly another 5-8 inches of snow Tuesday, this winter will be in the top-five seasons for snow through Jan. 3. That does not include the entire winter snowfall, which peaked at a total of 94.7 inches during the winter of 1968-1969.
"We'll be somewhere between 30 and 35 inches of snow in Sioux Falls since the season started," Weisser said. "So, 1968-1969 is the snowiest we've ever been through (to) this point (Jan. 3), and I can't remember the exact value but that was up around 44 inches."
Live weather updates: Sioux Falls issues no travel advisory, parts of major interstates shut down
Weisser said the last storm he could remember that was of this kind of magnitude snowfall-wise came in November 2015, when Sioux Falls saw a banded system that dumped anywhere from 9 to 18 inches through various locations in the city.
Sioux Falls also saw a Christmas blizzard in 2009 that brought 18.5 inches to the city, according to previous reports from the National Weather Service. There was also a storm in April of 2018 that saw 14.2 inches of snow fall, according to the National Weather Service.
"These heavy snow events happen more often than you think, a couple times a decade," Weisser said.
The latest storm follows a system that rolled through the state before Christmas, which forced various interstate and road closures, no travel advisories and brought limited to no visibility. While it didn't bring as much snow as seen with the latest system, that storm was paired with brutally cold temperatures that had wind chills below -50 and high winds.
And that's not the latest system that's brought snow to Sioux Falls. On Dec. 29, the National Weather Service reported 3.1 inches of snowfall.
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It's not abnormal for the state to see large snowfall amounts, with Weisser saying some central parts of South Dakota see up to 15 to 25 inches, but that doesn't always make its way to Sioux Falls.
"It's not too often we get stuff like this (in Sioux Falls)," Weisser said.
On record, Feb. 17 through Feb. 18 in 1962, saw the greatest amount of snowfall in a 24-hour period when 26 inches of snow was dumped on Sioux Falls.
As of now, the National Weather Service of Sioux Falls has no big leanings in which direction the rest of the winter is going to be, with equal chances of above or below normal in snowfall totals.
More:How much snow did Sioux Falls get so far Tuesday? Top snowfall reports in South Dakota
Officials with the National Weather Service expect the heaviest snowfall will stop at about noon Tuesday, but lighter stuff will continue, with Weisser estimating that parts of the city could see yet another inch to 4 inches of snowfall.
The area is under a winter storm warning through 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to the weather service.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: This Sioux Falls season is one of the top 5 snowiest with winter storm
