Joe's Corner

20^th century climate for
Sioux Falls South Dakota

by Joe Sheehan
National Weather Service
Sioux Falls, SD

The following data is for Sioux Falls South Dakota using official records dating back to 1893.

The idea for this project began in the late 1990s when I realized the summer’s of the 1990’s had fewer than the average number of days with temperatures of 90 degrees or above. For example, 1992 had only two days of 90 degree heat and one of those occurred in April. It turned out that the decade of the 1990s had the fewest number of days with 90 and 100 degree heat of any decade in the 20^th century. The original intent of my research was to determine the number of days with 90, 100, 0 and -10 degree temperatures for each decade. However, it evolved into the following article which examines total precipitation and average temperature.

For the purposes of this article the spring months are determined to be March, April and May, summer - June, July and August, autumn - September, October and November, and Winter - December, January and February.

During the early 1900’s a couple of months data was missing. To determine the average annual temperature I determined the missing month to be normal and then added the remaining 11 months before dividing by twelve.

Average Temperature by Decade - see table below for details

	AVERAGE DECADE TEMPERATURE	AVERAGE DECADE SUMMER TEMPERATURE	AVERAGE DECADE WINTER TEMPERATURE
1900-1909	45.5 DEGREES	69.8 DEGREES	17.7 DEGREES
1910-1919	45.1 DEGREES	70.4 DEGREES	16.4 DEGREES
1920-1929	47.0 DEGREES	70.9 DEGREES	20.1 DEGREES
1930-1939	47.9 DEGREES	73.6 DEGREES	20.2 DEGREES
1940-1949	46.2 DEGREES	70.8 DEGREES	19.7 DEGREES
1950-1959	45.4 DEGREES	71.4 DEGREES	18.1 DEGREES
1960-1969	45.2 DEGREES	70.8 DEGREES	17.3 DEGREES
1970-1979	45.0 DEGREES	71.6 DEGREES	15.2 DEGREES
1980-1989	46.3 DEGREES	71.8 DEGREES	19.4 DEGREES
1990-1999	45.9 DEGREES	70.4 DEGREES	19.9 DEGREES

NUMBER OF DAYS WITH:
	90 DEGREES OR WARMER	100 DEGREES OR WARMER	0 DEGREES OR COLDER	-10 DEGREES OR COLDER
1900-1909	206 +	9 +	285 ++	127 ++
1910-1919	261	12	355	175
1920-1929	192	8	232	89
1930-1939	358	58	222	102
1940-1949	223	22	251	75
1950-1959	263	13	311	128
1960-1969	228	10	369	145
1970-1979	268	31	357	185
1980-1989	248	23	283	118
1990-1999	152	6	253	93

+ MISSING JUNE 1907 DATA
++ MISSING MARCH 1901 DATA

Total Precipitation by Decade - see table below for details

	PRECIPITATION FOR DECADE	HIGHEST TEMPERATURE FOR DECADE	LOWEST TEMPERATURE FOR DECADE
1900-1909	286.63 INCHES	102 JULY 20 1901	-37 FEBRUARY 2 1905
1910-1919	254.25 INCHES	105 JUNE 25 1911	-38 JANUARY 12 1912
1920-1929	258.63 INCHES	106 JULY 19 1926	-29 JANUARY 5 1924
1930-1939	254.42 INCHES	110 JULY 17 1936	-30 FEBRUARY 16 1936
1940-1949	256.50 INCHES	108 JULY 29 1947	-27 FEBRUARY 8 1948
1950-1959	239.86 INCHES	103 AUGUST 25 1955	-26 FEBRUARY 16 1958
1960-1969	240.17 INCHES	106 JULY 10 1966	-31 FEBRUARY 28 1962
1970-1979	247.23 INCHES	108 AUGUST 26 1973	-36 JANUARY 19 1970
1980-1989	232.85 INCHES	110 JUNE 21 1988	-29 FEBRUARY 11 1988
1990-1999	261.64 INCHES	107 JULY 12 1995	-29 FEBRUARY 2 1996

Top Fives

WARMEST YEARS 50.6 DEGREES IN 1931 50.5 DEGREES IN 1921 50.2 DEGREES IN 1938 49.9 DEGREES IN 1987 49.5 DEGREES IN 1939	COOLEST YEARS 40.9 DEGREES IN 1917 42.2 DEGREES IN 1950,51,96 42.7 DEGREES IN 1916,72,78 43.2 DEGREES IN 1979 43.5 DEGREES IN 1903,65
WARMEST SUMMERS 77.8 DEGREES IN 1936 76.2 DEGREES IN 1988 74.5 DEGREES IN 1938,55,76 74.4 DEGREES IN 1921,37 74.2 DEGREES IN 1959	COOLEST SUMMERS 63.8 DEGREES IN 1915 66.2 DEGREES IN 1992 67.1 DEGREES IN 1903 67.3 DEGREES IN 1950,85 67.4 DEGREES IN 1951
COOLEST WINTERS 8.0 DEGREES IN 1978-79 8.9 DEGREES IN 1977-78 9.3 DEGREES IN 1916-17 9.4 DEGREES IN 1935-36,17-18 11.1 DEGREES IN 1903-04	WARMEST WINTERS 28.7 DEGREES IN 1930-31 27.5 DEGREES IN 1991-92 27.3 DEGREES IN 1986-87 26.1 DEGREES IN 1918-19 26.0 DEGREES IN 1920-21
WETTEST YEARS 36.11 INCHES IN 1993 36.02 INCHES IN 1909 35.53 INCHES IN 1905 34.57 INCHES IN 1911 34.09 INCHES IN 1929	DRIEST YEARS 11.42 INCHES IN 1976 13.82 INCHES IN 1980 15.33 INCHES IN 1958 15.79 INCHES IN 1989 16.40 INCHES IN 1967
MOST 90 DEGREE OR WARMER DAYS 61 DAYS IN 1936 55 DAYS IN 1976 46 DAYS IN 1955 43 DAYS IN 1988 41 DAYS IN 1937	LEAST 90 DEGREE OR WARMER DAYS 1 DAY IN 1915 2 DAYS IN 1903,92 5 DAYS IN 1951 6 DAYS IN 1924,44,45 8 DAYS IN 1902,79,93,96,97
MOST 100 DEGREE OR WARMER DAYS 21 DAYS IN 1936 14 DAYS IN 1988 10 DAYS IN 1934 8 DAYS IN 1974 7 DAYS IN 1930,31,41,47
MOST 0 DEGREE OR COLDER DAYS 54 DAYS IN 1916-17,78-79 53 DAYS IN 1917-18,55-56 52 DAYS IN 1964-65,77-78 50 DAYS IN 1903-04 49 DAYS IN 1935-36	LEAST 0 DEGREE OR COLDER DAYS 2 DAYS IN 1930-31 8 DAYS IN 1920-21 9 DAYS IN 1986-87 11 DAYS IN 1982-83,91-92,97-98 12 DAYS IN 1943-44
MOST -10 DEGREE OR COLDER DAYS 34 DAYS IN 1917-18,78-79 33 DAYS IN 1935-36 30 DAYS IN 1977-78 27 DAYS IN 1903-04,11-12,16-17 23 DAYS IN 1904-05	LEAST -10 DEGREE OR COLDER DAYS 0 DAYS IN 1930-31,44-45,82-83 1 DAY IN 1940-41,91-92 2 DAYS IN 1907-08,20-21,86-87,94-95 3 DAYS IN 1952-53,57-58,97-98 4 DAYS IN 1931-32,43-44,74-75

Take a look at more detailed data - broken down per decade:

NOAA's National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

Joe's Corner

20th century climate for Sioux Falls South Dakota

by Joe Sheehan National Weather Service Sioux Falls, SD

NUMBER OF DAYS WITH:

Top Fives

20^th century climate for
Sioux Falls South Dakota

by Joe Sheehan
National Weather Service
Sioux Falls, SD