1 high wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Rapid City, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 29, 2:45 PM MST, 43 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR WESTERN SD AND NORTHEASTERN WY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD 245 PM MST SUN DEC 29 2002 LATEST SFC ANALYSIS PLACES LOW OVER NE WY/SE MT AND NE MT. VERY GUSTY SW WINDS PERSIST OVER NE WY AND AROUND NRN AND ERN FOOTHILLS. SATELLITE INDC MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES OVER WRN HALF OF CWFA AND THIN CIRRUS OVER ERN HALF. 12Z MODELS INITIALIZE WELL AND SHOW GOOD AGREEMENT. WILL ANTICIPATE STRONG COLD FROPA THIS EVE. GOOD CAA TONIGHT COMBINING WITH 850MB WINDS AROUND 50KTS OVER NW SD...WILL SUPPORT WIND ADVY TONIGHT AND INTO MONDAY. DRY ATMO IS GETTING DRYER AS NOTED IN SATELLITE OBS. EVEN WITH ROBUST UVV...NO PRECIP IS ANTICIPATED. COLD AIR WILL POUR INTO AREA THROUGH TUESDAY...MAKING THE EARLY WEEK NEAR NORMAL TEMP-WISE. A WEAK WAVE WILL MOVE ACROSS THE NRN PLAINS WED. THIS SYSTEM WILL ONCE AGAIN LACK SUFFICIENT MOISTURE TO POSE MUCH OF A PRECIP THREAT...BUT HAVE KEPT SLT CHC POPS TWO NRN MOST ZONES WHERE BEST LIFT WILL BE RECOGNIZED. THINGS REMAIN DRY AND MILD UNTIL SAT WHEN A RATHER DEEP UPPER TROF MOVES ACROSS THE CENTRAL PLAINS. THE POTENTIAL EXISTS THAT THIS SYSTEM COULD TAP INTO SOME GULF MOISTURE. HAVE ONLY CONTINUED LOW CHC POPS ATTM...HOWEVER THIS LOOKS TO BE THE BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR PRECIP IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS. TEMPS WILL REMAIN SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL THU THROUGH SAT...BEFORE A COLD FRONT ASSOCD WITH SATS SYSTEM WILL COOL THINGS BACK DOWN. LOOK FOR THE LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK TO BE BREEZY/WINDY AS WAA THEN CAA KEEP WINDS UP. MODEL GUIDANCE SHOWING MUCH BETTER AGREEMENT THAN PAST FEW DAYS AND AGREES WITH CURRENT PROGS. HAVE NOT CHANGED MUCH. POPS LOOK DRY AND REASONABLE. .UNR...WND ADVY NW SD TNGT AND MONDAY. 99
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A very strong cold front moved across western South Dakota during the morning and afternoon. Wind gusts of 61 mph were recorded behind the front in the northern foothills of the Black Hills.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Dakota in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in South Dakota, December 2002
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5326038.