Weather Report For South Dakota : Goodbye June, Hello July

Laura Edwards

What a wet and woolly June we have had! The epicenter of rainfall and flooding has been in the far southeast. The National Weather Service Office in Sioux Falls has posted a brief summary of the month’s rainfall. The top South Dakota total goes to Canton (Lincoln County) with 19.65 inches! This preliminary total is 3.53 inches over the previous (unofficial) South Dakota monthly record, which was held by Clear Lake with 16.12 inches in June of 1992. The table below is a list of stations that reported more than 15 inches, from both National Weather Service (NWS) and CoCoRaHS reports.

There has been a lot of attention paid to this part of the state, but they are not the only ones who have been wet. The only areas of the state that show any rainfall deficit for the month include Jerauld, Sanborn, Beadle, Hand and northern Charles Mix counties. This region is currently depicted as D0, Abnormally Dry, on the U.S. Drought Monitor.

So, the past is in the past, as they say. What is the outlook for July?

This week, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released an update to their official national outlook for July. The new maps continue to show cooler than average temperatures more likely over South Dakota for the month (Figure 1). The short term forecast for this weekend certainly indicates a decent warm weekend ahead, but overall the month is projected to lean towards cooler than average.

The outlook for precipitation shows equal chances of below average, above average, and near average rainfall for the whole state. Keep in mind that July, however, is one of our wettest months on the east side of the state. This could still mean 2 to 4 inches of rain in July if we are near normal. Given the saturated conditions in some areas, the cool temperature outlook could keep evaporation rates low and reduce loss of moisture from the soil.

Figure 1. Temperature outlook for July, updated on June 30, 2014. Climate models and forecasters are leaning toward cooler than average temperatures for South Dakota for the month.

Source : SDSU