Winter Storm — Hanson, South Dakota

2024-03-24 to 2024-03-26 · Hanson, South Dakota

Event narrative

Snow developed early and was heavy at times, but changed to a period of mixed precipitation by midday on the 24th as temperatures warmed above freezing. Snow redeveloped by early on the 25th, concurrent with north winds which gusted as high as 48 mph near Alexandria to produce visibility very briefly as low as 1/4 mile. Snow totaled 6.2 inches at Alexandria.

Wider weather episode

A deep trough of low pressure pushed slowly out of the southern Rockies and spurred development of a strong area of low pressure, which moved slolwly from eastern Colorado on the 24th to the western Great Lakes on the 26th. Abundant warm air near the surface and aloft limited wintry impacts over northwest Iowa and forced a mix of wintry types or change to rain or drizzle as far west as the Missouri River in southeast South Dakota as surface temperatures climbed near or above freezing after the initial warm advection snow on the 24th. This coated and crusted over the new snow cover and when intense winds which gusted to 40 to 55 mph developed on the 25th into the 26th behind the system, widespread blizzard conditions failed to develop. Nevertheless, hazardous travel conditions with numerous slide-ins and accidents were reported across much of southeast South Dakota into southwest Minnesota.

Multi-day snow accumulation was generally from 4 to 12 inches from south central to east central South Dakota and into northern areas of southwest Minnesota, with peak wind gusts as high as 55 mph near Wagner, Dallas, and Dixon.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1169629. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.