A large upper level low pressure system pushed across the Northern Plains, bringing heavy rain to the Bear Lodge Mountains. Embedded thunderstorms produced additional heavy rain, with four to five inches of rain falling over a 24 hour period.
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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 UNR wrote it up.
A large upper level low pressure system pushed across the Northern Plains, bringing heavy rain to the Bear Lodge Mountains. Embedded thunderstorms produced additional heavy rain, with four to five inches of rain falling over a 24 hour period. Runoff caused minor flooding along the Belle Fourche River and its tributaries. Several county roads were closed or washed out and culverts were damaged.
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 May 31, 5:44 PM MST, 6 hours 16 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR WESTERN SD AND NORTHEASTERN WY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD 644 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 .UPDATE... ISSUED AT 636 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 WINDS CONTINUE TO DECREASE THIS EVENING...THUS HAVE DROPPED THE WIND ADVISORY. UPSLOPE RAIN WILL BRING AN ADDITIONAL HALF TO ONE INCH THROUGH TONIGHT. RAIN WILL BEGIN TO DECREASE ON THE PLAINS LATE THIS EVENING. && .SHORT TERM...THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT ISSUED AT 258 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 MASSIVE CLOSED UPPER LOW CONTINUES TO SHIFT EAST OVER THE NORTHERN PLAINS WITH SEVERAL EMBEDDED IMPULSES ROTATING AROUND THE MAIN UPPER CIRCULATION. LIGHT TO MODERATE RAIN CONTINUES TO FALL OVER MUCH OF THE FA...SAVE THE FAR SE AND ALONG THE SE BH WHERE DOWNSLOPING IS ONGOING. THE ENTIRE COMPLEX WILL TRACK EAST IN THE PERIOD...WITH LIFT AND FORCING SHIFTING SOUTH OUT OF THE AREA THROUGH SATURDAY...AND MOST PRECIP IS EXPECTED TO END BY SATURDAY MORNING NW 2/3. PAC NE UPPER TROUGH WILL SHIFT EAST INTO WESTERN CANADA WITH ASSOCIATED DOWNSTREAM DEEP LAYER RIDGING EXPECTED TO SHIFT EAST OVER THE NORTHERN PLAINS SATURDAY...BRINGING DRY WEATHER ALL PLACES BY SATURDAY NIGHT. HAVE ADJUSTED POPS UP MOST PLACES THROUGH THIS EVENING...GIVEN ONGOING RAIN. ADJUSTED GRIDS TO REFLECT A WANE TO PRECIP CHANCES SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON...TRENDING SE THROUGH THE DAY...WHICH LINES UP WELL WITH NAM/GFS/ECMWF 300K ISENTROPIC CHARTS. SNOW REMAINS A POSSIBILITY OVER THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE BH ABOVE 6 KFT...AND HAVE RETAINED SNOW MENTION THERE WITH SOME MINOR ACCUMS POSSIBLE. WILL END THE AREAL FLOOD WATCH AS A WARNING IS ALREADY IN EFFECT FOR MOST OF THE WATCH AREA...AND NEW AREAL FLOODING IS NOT EXPECTED OUTSIDE THE FLOOD WARNING AREA. STRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL CONTINUE OVER MOST OF THE FA THROUGH THE EVENING. BRIEF LULLS IN THE INTENSITY OF WIND MAY BE EXPERIENCED IN PERIODS OF HEAVIER RAIN GIVEN PERIODIC MIXING HEIGHT LOWERING. THE WIND ADV MAY NEED TO BE EXTENDED OVER THE SD PLAINS NEAREST THE BH INCLUDING RAPID CITY THROUGH REST OF THE NIGHT. WILL LET THE EVENING SHIFT ASSESS. OTHERWISE...WINDS WILL WANE THROUGH SATURDAY. BELOW NORMAL TEMPS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE PERIOD...WITH TEMPS BEING SOME 10 TO 20 DEGREES BELOW SEASONAL NORMS. SFC HIGH PRESSURE WILL SETTLE OVER THE AREA SATURDAY NIGHT...SUPPORTING CLEAR SKIES/LIGHT WINDS/AND DRIER AIR INTO THE REGION. GIVEN BUFR PROGGED SOUNDINGS THAT INDICATE APPRECIABLE DRY AIR JUST OF THE SFC...PATCHY FROST WILL CERTAINLY BE POSSIBLE ON THE PLAINS WHERE TEMPS ARE ABLE TO FALL INTO THE UPPER 30S. LEFT THE MENTION OUT OF THE GRIDDED DATABASE FOR NOW AND WILL LET THE NIGHT SHIFT TAKE ANOTHER LOOK. && .LONG TERM...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY ISSUED AT 258 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 FAST MOVING UPPER LEVEL RIDGE PASSES OVER THE AREA FOR SUNDAY BRINGING A RETURN TO DRY CONDITIONS ALONG WITH WARMER TEMPS. RIDGE PUSHES TO THE EAST TO START THE WORK WEEK AS COMPACT UPPER LOW SLIDES OVER THE NORTHERN ROCKIES AND SLOWLY WORKS INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS. MODELS AGREE IN KEEPING THE TRACK AND HEAVIEST PRECIP NORTH OF THE CWA...THOUGH WITH THE GENERALLY UNSETTLED PATTERN WILL KEEP POPS IN THROUGH MID-WEEK WITH NEAR/SLIGHTLY BELOW AVERAGE TEMPS. MODELS SHOWING ZONAL FLOW FOR THE END OF THE WORK WEEK WITH WEAK UPPER WAVES CROSSING THE REGION...SO WILL LEAVE IN LOWER END POPS. && .AVIATION...(FOR THE 00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SATURDAY EVENING) ISSUED AT 512 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 RAIN WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT...MAINLY ACROSS FAR NORTHEAST WYOMING AND WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA. WIDESPREAD MVFR CIGS/VSBY WITH LCL IFR CONDITIONS AROUND THE BLACK HILLS. SOME SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT ACROSS HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE BLACK HILLS. GUSTY WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS...WITH GUSTS TO 40KTS...WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING AND THEN DECREASE OVERNIGHT. && .UNR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... SD...NONE. WY...NONE. && UPDATE...7 SHORT TERM...JC LONG TERM...13 AVIATION...7
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RAPID CITY SD 741 PM MDT FRI MAY 31 2013 SDZ001-002-012>014-024>032-041>044-046-047-049-072>074-WYZ054>058- 071-011300- BENNETT-BUTTE-CENTRAL BLACK HILLS-CUSTER CO PLAINS-FALL RIVER-HAAKON- HARDING-HERMOSA FOOT HILLS-JACKSON-MELLETTE-NORTHEASTERN CROOK- NORTHERN BLACK HILLS-NORTHERN CAMPBELL-NORTHERN FOOT HILLS- NORTHERN MEADE CO PLAINS-PENNINGTON CO PLAINS-PERKINS-RAPID CITY- SHANNON-SOUTHERN BLACK HILLS-SOUTHERN CAMPBELL-SOUTHERN FOOT HILLS- SOUTHERN MEADE CO PLAINS-STURGIS/PIEDMONT FOOT HILLS-TODD-TRIPP- WESTERN CROOK-WESTON-WYOMING BLACK HILLS-ZIEBACH- 741 PM MDT (841 PM CDT) FRI MAY 31 2013 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA AND NORTHEASTERN WYOMING. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT STRONG LOW PRESSURE CROSSING SOUTH DAKOTA WILL CONTINUE TO BRING RAIN AND WIND TO MUCH OF THE AREA THROUGH TONIGHT. HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE BEAR LODGE MOUNTAINS INTO THE NORTHERN BLACK HILLS WILL CONTINUE TO CAUSE AREAS OF FLOODING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED TODAY. && STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR UPDATES... OR CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT WEATHER.GOV/RAPIDCITY
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Several creeks and streams experienced flooding. The Belle Fourche River near Alva reached a stage of 7.5 feet, which is three feet above flood stage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Wyoming in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Wyoming, June 2013
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: 456904.