National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Back-to-Back Pacific Storms to Impact the West Coast; Heavy Snow in the Central Appalachians

Back-to-back powerful Pacific storm systems to impact the Pacific Northwest and northern California through the end of this week with heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow. A strong, long-duration atmospheric river will accompany the Pacific storms, bringing excessive rainfall and flash flooding to southwest Oregon and northwest California through the week. Read More >

Overview

On December 1-2, 2018, moderate to heavy snow fell over portions of northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota. The heaviest snow fell in Colome, SD where 15" was estimated. A band of 8-12" fell over south central South Dakota near the Nebraska border. A pocket of 8-10" fell over the higher Black Hills.

The precipitation started out as rain over south central South Dakota late on November 30 and then progressed westward and turned to snow. The snow ended Sunday morning December 2.

Records

Several new daily snowfall and precipitation records were set on December 1, 2018 for Downtown Rapid City and the Rapid City Airport.

Downtown Rapid City

  • 6.7" of snow is a new record daily maximum snowfall for December 1. It breaks the old record of 4.3" set in 2015.
  • 6.7" of snow is also the 4th Highest Daily Snowfall in the month of December. The highest December one-day snowfall was set December 5, 1906 when 9.0" of snow fell.
  • 0.57" of precipitation is a new record daily maximum precipitation total for December 1. The old record was 0.28" set in 1968.

Rapid City Airport

  • 6.2" of snow is a new record daily maximum snowfall for December 1. It breaks the old record of 4.2" set in 1980.
  • 6.2" of snow is also the 3rd Highest Daily Snowfall in the month of December. The highest December one-day snowfall was set December 31, 1975 when 9.8" of snow fell.
  • 0.52" of precipitation is a new record daily maximum precipitation total for December 1. The old record was 0.28" set in 1980.
Image
Box Elder, SD
Courtesy Chevy F.
nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.
nws logo