Drought in South Dakota, May 1 to 31, 2013

Name: Drought in South Dakota, May 1 to 31, 2013
Start: 2013-05-01T00:00
End: 2013-05-31T23:59
Location: South Dakota

May 1 to 31, 2013 · NWS ABR · 12 events in 12 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 12 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 12

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS ABR wrote it up.

After a rather quiet start to May, the weather pattern turned unsettled and wet during the middle of the month. A large upper level low pressure system spinning over the region for a few days brought much needed moderate to heavy rainfall from the 17th through the 22nd. This caused most of the region to improve by one category on their drought conditions. The severe to extreme drought area along and west of the Missouri River at the beginning of the month improved by the middle of the month with only a small portion of southwest Corson county in extreme drought and the rest having moderate to severe drought conditions. By the end of the month, only southwest Stanley and most of Jones County had severe drought.

What forecasters said that day

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 Aberdeen, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 30, 11:24 PM CST, 36 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 30, 11:24 PM CST, 36 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD
1224 AM CDT WED MAY 1 2013

.UPDATE...
SEE UPDATED AVIATION DISCUSSION BELOW.

NO CHANGES ARE PLANNED TO THE TONIGHT PERIOD FORECAST. THE RETURNS
ON RADAR OVER THIS CWA ARE EITHER JUST MID AND HIGH CLOUDS OR
VIRGA RETURNS. PER THE 00Z KABR UPPER AIR SOUNDING...RATHER DRY
AIR IN PLACE IN THE LOWEST 9000FT AGL OF THE ATMOSPHERE WILL
CONTINUE TO BE REINFORCED BY LOW/MID LEVEL DRY AIR ADVECTION
OVERNIGHT. ALL THE BEST FORCING/LIFT TONIGHT WILL BE RELEGATED TO
SOUTH OF THIS CWA. NEVERTHELESS...WILL CONTINUE TO KEEP THE LOW
END POPS/WX MENTION ACROSS THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE CWA FOR
COLLABORATION- SAKE. LOW LEVEL CAA WILL DO BATTLE WITH THE MID AND
HIGH CLOUD COVER THAT IS EXPECTED TO BE AROUND MOST ALL OF THE
NIGHT...MAKING TONIGHT'S LOW TEMPERATURE FORECAST A BIT TRICKY
/LOW CONFIDENCE/.

&&
.PREVIOUS DISCUSSION...
.SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT
THE MAIN FORECAST CHALLENGE IN THE SHORT RANGE IS TEMPS. OVER THE
NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS A FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL BE SPLAYED OUT SOUTH
OF THE FORECAST AREA WITH OVERRUNNING ENERGY TRACKING NORTHEAST
ACROSS THE CENTRAL PLAINS. THE BEST UVM/MOISTURE COMBINATION WILL
EXIST NEAR AND JUST NORTH OF THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY...WHICH
BASICALLY MEANS ANY MEANINGFUL PCPN WILL BE SOUTH OF THE ABR CWA.
MEANWHILE SFC HIGH PRESSURE WILL BE NUDGING SOUTH INTO THE REGION
WITH COOLER THAN NORMAL TEMPERATURES. THE NET RESULT BEING A
CHANCE FOR A RAIN/SNOW MIX FOR THE FAR SOUTHERN/SOUTHEASTERN CWA.
THE NORTHERN CWA SHOULD BE DRY THROUGH THE PERIOD.

.LONG TERM...FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY
FORECASTER CONFIDENCE IS EXTREMELY LOW THROUGH THIS TIMEFRAME.
MODEL TRENDS OVER THE LAST SEVERAL RUNS HAVE JUMPED BETWEEN A
MULTITUDE OF SOLUTIONS...AND WHILE THERE IS RECENT CONVERGENCE ON
THE TRACK OF A CUT OFF LOW THROUGH THE WEEKEND...WILL REMAIN
SKEPTICAL UNTIL MORE RUN TO RUN CONSISTENCY HAS OCCURRED. THE MAIN
ISSUE WILL BE HOW FAR NORTH AND WEST WE CAN EXPECT TROWAL
PRECIPITATION...AND THE CWA HAS TYPICALLY BEEN ON THE EDGE. THE
CLOUD EDGE WILL ALSO IMPACT DIURNAL RANGE IN TEMPERATURES...AGAIN
A PROBLEM WITH MODEL CONSISTENCY...ALTHOUGH BELOW AVERAGE H85
TEMPERATURES ARE THE MOST LIKELY OUTCOME BETWEEN ALL SOLUTIONS SO
WILL CONTINUE TO ADVERTISE BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES.

&&

.AVIATION...
06Z TAFS FOR THE KABR...KATY...KPIR AND KMBG TERMINALS

VFR CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED THROUGH THE TAF PERIOD.

&&

.ABR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
SD...NONE.
MN...NONE.
&&

UPDATE...DORN
SHORT TERM...TDK
LONG TERM...CONNELLY
AVIATION...PARKIN

WEATHER.GOV/ABERDEEN

Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 30, 9:28 PM CST, 2 hours 32 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD
1028 PM CDT TUE APR 30 2013

MNZ039-046-SDZ003>011-015>023-033>037-045-048-051-020330-
TRAVERSE-BIG STONE-CORSON-CAMPBELL-MCPHERSON-BROWN-MARSHALL-
ROBERTS-WALWORTH-EDMUNDS-DAY-DEWEY-POTTER-FAULK-SPINK-CLARK-
CODINGTON-GRANT-HAMLIN-DEUEL-STANLEY-SULLY-HUGHES-HYDE-HAND-JONES-
LYMAN-BUFFALO-
1028 PM CDT TUE APR 30 2013 /928 PM MDT TUE APR 30 2013/

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF WEST CENTRAL
MINNESOTA...CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA...NORTH CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA AND
NORTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED TODAY OR TONIGHT.

TMT

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

12 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Buffalo

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Buffalo forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.076, -99.205 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Corson

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 28, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Corson forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.709, -101.197 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Dewey

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 28, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Dewey forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.157, -100.872 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Hand

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Hand forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.548, -99.005 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Hughes

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Hughes forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.389, -99.996 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Hyde

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Hyde forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.547, -99.487 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Jones

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Jones forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 43.961, -100.690 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Lyman

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Lyman forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 43.896, -99.847 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Stanley

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Stanley forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.412, -100.736 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Sully

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Sully forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 44.716, -100.132 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Potter

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Potter forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.065, -99.957 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Walworth

When: May 1, 12:00 AM CST to May 21, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Walworth forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.430, -100.032 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Drought: A drought reaching severe (D2) or worse on the US Drought Monitor, or with notable impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in South Dakota in 2013 Every state in 2013 This day in weather history Warnings in South Dakota, May 2013

Sources

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: 453710, 453711, 453712, 453713, 453714, 453715, 453718, 453719, 453720, 455052, 455053, 455054.