National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

It has been rather cool in South Dakota for normally the warmest
month of the year. Details of the statistics follow below in this
evening's South Dakota weather summary...

WEATHER SUMMARY FOR SOUTH DAKOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
856 PM CDT TUE JUL 21 2009

A MOSTLY SUNNY SKY PREVAILED OVER SOUTH DAKOTA THIS AFTERNOON AND
EVENING...COMPLIMENTS OF WEAK HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE DAKOTAS AND
NEBRASKA. THE HIGH WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO PREVENT THE SCATTERED
CUMULUS CLOUDS FROM GETTING A LITTLE THICK PERIODICALLY OVER THE
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARTS OF THE STATE...WITH SOME
THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING JUST SOUTHEAST OF SOUTH DAKOTA...IN
NORTHWEST IOWA. AS THE SUN WAS GETTING LOWER IN THE WESTERN
HORIZON...AND TEMPERATURES BEGAN SLOWLY FALLING FROM AFTERNOON
MAXIMUMS...THE CLOUDS WERE GRADUALLY DISSIPATING. WINDS ACROSS THE
STATE TODAY HAVE VARIED FROM WEST TO NORTHEAST...AT 5 TO 15 MPH.

HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS SOUTH DAKOTA THIS AFTERNOON WERE IN THE MID
70S TO MID 80S. THE BLACK HILLS AREA WAS A LITTLE COOLER...WITH
HIGHS IN THE 70S. CUSTER REPORTED A MAXIMUM OF 76 DEGREES.
ELSEWHERE...HIGHS ACROSS THE PLAINS RANGED FROM 75 AT BOTH BROOKINGS
AND MADISON...TO 85 AT BOTH PHILIP AND PIERRE.

AT 8 PM CDT...A CLEAR TO PARTLY CLOUDY SKY WAS OVER MOST OF SOUTH
DAKOTA. SOME LOCATIONS BETWEEN ELM SPRINGS AND GREGORY...AND ALSO
BETWEEN PRINGLE AND MARTIN...WERE MOSTLY CLOUDY. TEMPERATURES HAD
COOLED INTO MAINLY THE 70S. EXTREMES ACROSS THE PLAINS ON THE HOUR
RANGED FROM 72 DEGREES AT BOTH WATERTOWN AND MADISON...TO 83 AT
PHILIP. IN THE BLACK HILLS...CUSTER WAS DOWN TO 68 DEGREES. WINDS
ACROSS THE EASTERN HALF OF SOUTH DAKOTA WERE CALM...OR LIGHT BETWEEN
WEST AND NORTH AT 3 TO 8 MPH. MOST OF THE WESTERN HALF OF THE STATE
HAD NORTHWEST TO NORTHEAST WINDS AT 3 TO 10 MPH. AN EXCEPTION WAS
CUSTER...WITH AN EAST WIND AT 7 MPH.

THE FIRST 20 DAYS OF JULY HAS BEEN A COOLER THAN NORMAL PERIOD ACROSS
SOUTH DAKOTA...WITH TEMPERATURES 2.5 TO 5.5 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL.
STATISTICS THROUGH JULY 20TH FOR SELECTED CITIES ACROSS THE STATE
INCLUDE...

CITY        JULY 2009 AVERAGE    DEPARTURE FROM  WARMEST DAY
               TEMPERATURE           NORMAL

RAPID CITY     68.3 DEGREES      - 2.7 DEGREES    95 ON 19TH
MITCHELL       70.3 DEGREES      - 3.4 DEGREES    88 ON  7TH
SIOUX FALLS    68.8 DEGREES      - 3.8 DEGREES    87 ON  7TH
HURON          69.2 DEGREES      - 3.8 DEGREES    88 ON  6TH
ABERDEEN       67.9 DEGREES      - 3.8 DEGREES    89 ON  6TH
WATERTOWN      65.8 DEGREES      - 4.3 DEGREES    83 ON  2ND
PIERRE         70.6 DEGREES      - 4.3 DEGREES    90 ON  7TH
MOBRIDGE       67.6 DEGREES      - 5.1 DEGREES    88 ON  6TH
SISSETON       66.1 DEGREES      - 5.5 DEGREES    84 ON  9TH

$$

TRM