textproduct: Sioux Falls

KEY MESSAGES

- Light snow showers north of Interstate 90 will taper off through early night time hours. Little if any additional accumulation is expected.

- Thursday night into Friday night there is another chance for some showers. Some uncertainty remains on whether precipitation will be rain or snow.

- Dry weather Sunday through mid week with a nice warming trend.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 222 PM CDT Wed Apr 2 2025

TODAY: Current radar shows our winter system finally beginning to move off to the northeast. As it does so, some lingering wrap around precipitation may continue through this evening. As CAA sweeps in behind the system, expect the primary precipitation type to be flurries to light snow. Snow will gradually taper off from south to north. Additional accumulation will be light, generally an inch or less with the highest totals expected along and north of Highway 14 in southwestern Minnesota. Winds this afternoon will be northwesterly and breezy, gusting to 25-30 mph, with a few occasional gusts to 35 mph possible south of Highway 20. This could result in some brief reductions in visibility while snow is actively falling. The good news is the strongest gusts will be along and south of I-90, removed from the heaviest snow. Some blowing of snow is possible, but with the wet heavy nature of the snow, and the warm ground temperatures melting snow shortly after it falls, the risk is low. Lows for tonight will fall to the 20s and 30s.

THURSDAY-FRIDAY: Conditions will dry out for a short time as a week midlevel ridge builds in over the region. Winds will continue to be northerly but will be light, gradually becoming easterly overnight. Highs for Thursday will warm to the 40s and 50s, seasonable but slightly below average for this time of year. Lows will be in the 20s and 30s. Thursday evening a midlevel wave moves northeast out over the central Plains. Ahead of the wave comes a push of WAA and potential vorticity advection. Aloft in the midlevels, weak instability will help to maintain some light showers. These showers are expected to continue through the day, gradually tapering off Friday night into Saturday morning. There remains large differences in track and timing of precipitation onset. There is also disagreement on the type of precipitation at onset. The NAM, EC, and CAN all indicate warmer temperatures at onset, meaning precipitation will begin as rain, and then slowly transition to snow. The GFS, however, has a rain to rain/snow mix at onset that quickly transitions to all snow. All this to say that uncertainty with this next round of precipitation is high. As far as high temperatures for Friday they will be slightly warmer than the previous day thanks to that WAA push, in the upper 40s to 50. Lows will be in the 20s.

SATURDAY AND BEYOND: An upper wave passes over the region Saturday turning surface winds northerly and breezy. Slightly cooler highs for Saturday thanks to weak CAA ahead of the wave, in the 40s. Another breezy day Sunday as the trough axis pivots overhead. Highs will be in the 40s and 50s. By Monday a strong upper ridge builds over the region with high pressure at the surface. Through the middle of next week, conditions look to be dry with mostly clear skies. A warming trend begins Monday, with highs in the 40s and 50s, Tuesday in the 50s and 60s, and 60s to 70s for Wednesday.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z FRIDAY/

Issued at 1036 PM CDT Wed Apr 2 2025

Light snow showers north of Interstate 90 will taper off around 06Z. MVFR/IFR stratus across the area will slowly break up from south to north through the night into Thursday morning. Gusty northwesterly winds will diminish overnight, trending toward light by Thursday afternoon.

FSD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

SD...None. MN...None. IA...None. NE...None.