Blizzard in Mcpherson, South Dakota

Blizzard conditions were observed on the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) mesonet webcam located 13 miles east of Eureka. Winds increased above 35 mph at 147 am and frequently gusted between 40-55 mph while snow was falling, resulting in visibility down to a quarter mile or less. Once falling snow moved out of the area, visibility improved rapidly.

A system brought strong winds to the region, with a band of snow across the northeast South Dakota. This resulted in blizzard conditions with widespread travel impacts from the early morning through the afternoon of February 18.

Peak winds associated with the system included a gust measuring 72 mph by a mesonet station owned by a trained spotter in Faulkton, a 71 mph gust recorded by the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) Road Weather Information System (RWIS) 4 miles north of Altamont (Deuel county) and a 67 mph gusts measured by the SDDOT RWIS 7 miles east of Clark. 47 additional weather stations would record a peak wind gust at or in excess of 58 mph.

The Andover and Westport COOP observers reported blizzard or ground blizzard conditions at the time of their observations.

Not much overall snowfall occurred with the system, but within the band snowfall averaged about 4 inches with the COOP observers in Westport and Clark reporting a total of 4.1 and 4.0 inches of snowfall respectively. Additionally, the National Weather Service office just outside the Aberdeen Regional Airport measured 3.7 inches.