A wildfire burned grassland in and near the Karl E. Mundt National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Gregory County South Dakota on August 16th.
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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 episode as NWS FSD wrote it up.
A wildfire burned grassland in and near the Karl E. Mundt National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Gregory County South Dakota on August 16th.
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 Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 16, 3:15 AM CST, 6 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR SOUTHEAST SD/SOUTHWEST MN/NORTHWEST IA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 415 AM CDT THU AUG 16 2012 .DISCUSSION.../ISSUED AT 250 AM CDT/ COLD FRONT WELL SOUTHEAST OF CWA...HOWEVER SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS PERSIST ACROSS FAR SOUTHEAST CWA NEAR H85 FRONT. THIS ACTIVITY SHOULD BE SOUTHEAST OF CWA BY 12Z. SO A MUCH COOLER DAY ON TAP FOR THE CWA. SHOULD START OUT MOSTLY CLEAR...EXCEPT FAR SOUTHEAST WHERE CLOUDS WILL STILL BE PULLING OUT. THEN AS MORNING PROGRESSES SOME STRATUS WILL SLIDE SOUTHEAST OUT OF NORTHERN MN AND BRING PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES TO AREAS ALONG AND E OF I29 AND MAY BE MOSTLY CLOUDY AT TIMES ACROSS SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA. ALSO WILL BE A BIT BREEZY WITH GUST TO 25 MPH AT TIMES TODAY. WILL SEE BELOW NORMAL HIGHS AND EVEN WITH GOOD MIXING HIGHS WILL ONLY BE IN THE 70S...AND MAY NOT GET ABOVE 70 ACROSS SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA. SURFACE HIGH WILL SETTLE ACROSS CWA TONIGHT WITH LIGHT WINDS AND CLEAR SKIES. CHILLY HIGH FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR...AND WITH GROUND QUITE DRY...SHOULD RADIATE LIKE A DESERT CLIMATE AND WILL SEE SOME RECORD LOWS AS TEMPERATURES DROP INTO LOWER TO MID 40S. FRIDAY WILL BE A PLEASANT DAY ACROSS CWA WITH LESS WIND AND PLENTY OF SUNSHINE. WILL ALSO BE A FEW DEGREES WARMER. WEAK SHORTWAVE WILL DROP SOUTHEAST ACROSS CWA FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY AND MAY BRING A FEW SHOWERS TO AREAS ALONG AND WEST OF I29 LATER FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY. SO WILL KEPP A 20 TO 30% CHANCE ALONG AND WEST OF I29. WILL REMAIN COOL ACROSS THE CWA ON SATURDAY WITH ANOTHER DAY WITH HIGHS ONLY IN THE 70S WITH MORE CLOUDS ACROSS THE WESTERN HALF OF CWA. REST OF WEEKEND WILL REMAIN DRY AND COOL. SO AM EXPECTING 4 DAYS IN A ROW OF BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES WHICH HAS NOT HAPPENED THIS SUMMER. WARMER TEMPERATURES WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK AS EASTERN US TROF BEGINS TO SHIFT EAST ALLOWING FOR HEIGHTS TO RISE. DOES NOT LOOKS LIKE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANCES FOR RAIN THROUGH NEXT WEEK. WILL KEEP A 20% POPS EAST OF JAMES VALLEY FOR TUESDAY AS WEAK FRONT PUSHES EAST BUT DEBATED ON PULLING CHANCE COMPLETELY AND KEEPING A GENERALLY DRY FORECAST ACROSS CWA THROUGH NEXT WEEK. && .AVIATION.../FOR THE 12Z TAF ISSUANCE/ VFR CONDITIONS WILL BE PREVELANT ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA WITH STABLE AIR OVER THE AREA IN THE WAKE OF THE SIGNIFICANT COLD FRONT. NORTHWEST WINDS WILL BE INCREASING AROUND 15Z AND CONTINUE THROUGH 23Z...BUT WILL RAPIDLY DROP OFF THIS EVENING. && .FSD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... IA...NONE. MN...NONE. NE...NONE. SD...NONE. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 257 AM CDT THU AUG 16 2012 SDZ038>040-050-052>071-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097-098- IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-NEZ013-014-171200- AURORA-BEADLE-BON HOMME-BROOKINGS-BRULE-BUENA VISTA IA- CHARLES MIX-CHEROKEE IA-CLAY-CLAY IA-COTTONWOOD MN-DAKOTA NE- DAVISON-DICKINSON IA-DIXON NE-DOUGLAS-GREGORY-HANSON-HUTCHINSON- IDA IA-JACKSON MN-JERAULD-KINGSBURY-LAKE-LINCOLN-LINCOLN MN- LYON IA-LYON MN-MCCOOK-MINER-MINNEHAHA-MOODY-MURRAY MN-NOBLES MN- OBRIEN IA-OSCEOLA IA-PIPESTONE MN-PLYMOUTH IA-ROCK MN-SANBORN- SIOUX IA-TURNER-UNION-WOODBURY IA-YANKTON- 257 AM CDT THU AUG 16 2012 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA... SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA...NORTHWEST IOWA...AND NORTHEAST NEBRASKA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY AND TONIGHT. && FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SIOUXFALLS. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
A wildfire burned grassland and trees on and near the Karl E. Mundt Wildlife Refuge. No structures were burned. The fire burned 146 acres, including 112 acres on the refuge and 34 acres of private land.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Dakota in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in South Dakota, August 2012
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: 410697.