Winter Weather in Minnehaha, South Dakota

A period of freezing drizzle produced a thin glaze of ice on surfaces during the late afternoon and early evening of February 21. Slick roads caused a two-car accident in the northern portion of Sioux Falls which resulted in the fatality (indirect) of one driver. Precipitation changed to light snow, and while amounts were not significant with between 1.5 and 2.5 inches around Sioux Falls and 1.5 inches at Colton, when combined with winds which gusted as high as 45 mph near Dell Rapids and 40 mph at Sioux Falls, visibility was occasionally one mile or less and briefly less than one-half mile between 0700-1000CST February 22. In addition, wind chill was as low as -25F to -30F.

Southward pushing cold air near the surface interacted with a post-frontal wave in southwest flow aloft to produce a prolonged period of light snowfall, which began as a period of light freezing rain and freezing drizzle across far southeast South Dakota during the afternoon and early evening of February 21. In addition to snowfall which accumulated from as much as 1 to 3 inches, strong northerly winds produced dangerous wind chills from 25 below to 35 below zero from later on February 21 through the afternoon of February 22.