Blizzard — Southern Meade Co Plains, South Dakota

2022-12-22 to 2022-12-23 · Southern Meade Co Plains, South Dakota

Wider weather episode

An Arctic cold front brought some snow, including snow squalls, along with extremely low temperatures, strong winds, and bitter cold wind chills. New snowfall of a few inches, along with considerable, blowable snowpack from the previous week's blizzard, combined with the strong winds to produce a prolonged period of blizzard or near blizzard conditions across a good portion of the western and south-central South Dakota plains. The worst conditions were on Thursday, when gusts of 50 to over 60 mph developed. Interstate 90 was closed east of Rapid City for almost two days due to the blowing snow and near zero visibility at times. Many secondary roads across the plains became impassable due to high drifts as well.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1062681. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.