Precipitation varied from 125 to 150 percent of normal in far southwest Minnesota, but much occurred while the ground remained frozen.
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 episode as NWS FSD wrote it up.
Precipitation varied from 125 to 150 percent of normal in far southwest Minnesota, but much occurred while the ground remained frozen.
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 Feb 28, 10:46 PM CST, 1 hour 14 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Sioux Falls SD 1046 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 .SHORT TERM...(This Evening through Monday) Issued at 339 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 Settling in for a fairly quiet night, as additional upper energy falls into the trough moving into the Great Lakes. This will push a reinforcing backdoor cold front southward into the area by late night. Ahead of the front, will start the evening with winds dropping off from breezy to windy daytime levels, with temps falling especially over recent snow and/or lower valley locations with weak surface ridge nosing from NE into southeast SD before pre-frontal westerlies allow for a non-diurnal trace. Weak surface wave will ripple southeast toward NE SD by around midnight, and continue southeast through morning into northern IA. Front will drop southward behind the impulse, and with deeper large-scale forcing looking to remain toward central/southeast MN where there could be a little legitimate light snowfall. Some stratus is likely to develop behind the boundary moving into areas north of I-90 from east central SD into southwest MN by late night, and could even see a rogue flurry or two. Monday, there are signals in several solutions for this stratus to back south and westward with the boundary through much of the area before mixing/dissipating, but likely to be mainly a near/east of I- 29 feature through the morning/midday hours. Again, may see a couple of flurries at worst, but main impact from this boundary will be to reinforce cooling through areas mainly east of the James/Missouri River, where likely to see temps reminiscent of today in the 20s versus 30s to the west. .LONG TERM...(Monday Night through Sunday) Issued at 339 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 Main concern Monday night will be with south to southwest wind developing as the surface ridge slips eastward. Tell-tale sign of elevation wind event showing up in most solutions with the downridge pressure troughing, with winds likely gusting to at least 30 to 35 mph in the favored zones downstream of the ridge crest. Have boosted winds above most guidance, into the 90th percentile range. Big question going into Tuesday with wave passing north and surge of warming working eastward into the region is how much of this will be realized at the surface given the recent snowfall. Starting the day with strong inversion in place. Certainly are areas which will have a longer trajectory over bare ground with southwest flow (far southeast SD/northeast NE into northwest IA) but complicates as flow works toward west/northwest through the day. Certain to see some air conditioning as the snow cover melts, but also areas with snow toward the mid James River will be closer to a snow free area to the northwest. While some melting has occurred today with sun, and will again tomorrow, there will be quite a bit left to go heading into Tuesday. For this reason, have not gone for full potential near/downstream of the current snow cover (KBKX/KMML to KFSD-KMHE areas), and a bit toward higher percentiles for the KHON area and KSUX area. The overall upper level patter evolves toward a split flow mid to late week with a tendency for zonal/nw to ridging aloft over the Northern Plains. No significant chances for precip appear likely into next weekend, although would not be surprised to find a couple periods with a nominal chance at some point with weak troughs moving past in the northern branch, and a potentially closer glancing path to southern stream closed wave late week. After Tuesday warm push which leads wave moving by to the north and approach of another back door frontal boundary on Wednesday, flow either gets a little weak or the boundary is nearby in solutions through the end of the week. While there is overall certainly a reason to favor higher temps late week provided can eliminate most of the snow cover, the likelihood of some easterly component to the flow is very troublesome, and have only blended in some of the warmer 50th-75th percentile temps in areas toward central SD for Thursday-Saturday. && .AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Monday night) Issued at 1042 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 Relatively light south/southwesterly winds tonight will increase out of the northwest later tonight into Monday morning as cold front drops into the region. This front could bring a stratus deck in from the northeast, which could affect areas from east central SD, southwestern MN, and parts of northwestern IA. Confidence is low on the development of these clouds and how far to the southeast they may move on Monday. On Monday afternoon, northeasterly winds will transition to to the southeast later in the afternoon and evening. && .FSD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... SD...NONE. MN...NONE. IA...NONE. NE...NONE. && SHORT TERM...Chapman LONG TERM...Chapman AVIATION...JM
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Sioux Falls SD 526 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 IAZ001>003-012>014-020>022-031-032-MNZ071-072-080-081-089-090-097- 098-NEZ013-014-SDZ038>040-050-052>071-012330- Lyon-Osceola-Dickinson-Sioux-O'Brien-Clay-Plymouth-Cherokee- Buena Vista-Woodbury-Ida-Lincoln-Murray-Cottonwood-Nobles-Jackson- Pipestone-Rock-Dixon-Dakota-Beadle-Kingsbury-Brookings-Gregory- Jerauld-Sanborn-Miner-Lake-Moody-Brule-Aurora-Davison-Hanson-McCook- Minnehaha-Charles Mix-Douglas-Hutchinson-Turner-Bon Homme-Yankton- Union- 526 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for northwest Iowa, west central Iowa, southwest Minnesota, northeast Nebraska, central South Dakota, east central South Dakota, south central South Dakota and southeast South Dakota. .DAY ONE...Tonight. No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Monday through Saturday. No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not expected at this time.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
752 PM CST SUN FEB 28 2021
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0829 AM SNOW BROOKINGS 44.31N 96.78W
02/28/2021 M5.3 INCH BROOKINGS SD BROADCAST MEDIA
.
0800 AM SNOW 5 W BRUCE 44.43N 97.00W
02/28/2021 M5.5 INCH BROOKINGS SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 4 SW BURKE 43.14N 99.35W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH GREGORY SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0900 AM SNOW 2 SW BROOKINGS 44.28N 96.82W
02/28/2021 M4.2 INCH BROOKINGS SD PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. STORM TOTAL.
0730 AM SNOW 8 S BROOKINGS 44.19N 96.79W
02/28/2021 M6.0 INCH MOODY SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MY-3 BROOKINGS 8.1 S.
0800 AM SNOW 1 NNW CANTON 43.31N 96.59W
02/28/2021 M0.2 INCH LINCOLN SD CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION CNNS2 CANTON.
0645 AM SNOW 8 SSW CHAMBERLAIN 43.71N 99.38W
02/28/2021 M2.3 INCH BRULE SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 2 N CHESTER 43.93N 96.93W
02/28/2021 M3.1 INCH LAKE SD CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION CHES2 2.4 N CHESTER.
0700 AM SNOW 11 N COLMAN 44.14N 96.80W
02/28/2021 M3.0 INCH MOODY SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0630 AM SNOW CHAMBERLAIN 43.81N 99.33W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH BRULE SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-BL-1 CHAMBERLAIN 0.3 W.
0700 AM SNOW 10 W DIMOCK 43.50N 98.19W
02/28/2021 M3.6 INCH DAVISON SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 9 S DALLAS 43.11N 99.50W
02/28/2021 M0.7 INCH GREGORY SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-GY-1 DALLAS 8.8 S.
0700 AM SNOW DE SMET 44.38N 97.55W
02/28/2021 M3.0 INCH KINGSBURY SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-KY-5 DE SMET 0.2 SSE.
0840 AM SNOW ELKTON 44.24N 96.48W
02/28/2021 M4.0 INCH BROOKINGS SD PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. STORM TOTAL.
0259 PM SNOW EDGERTON 43.87N 96.13W
02/28/2021 M1.5 INCH PIPESTONE MN PUBLIC
0600 AM SNOW CLAYTON 43.45N 97.66W
02/28/2021 M0.5 INCH HUTCHINSON SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-HT-16 EMERY 10.8 S.
1230 PM SNOW 2 WSW GARRETSON 43.71N 96.53W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MH-91 GARRETSON 1.7 WSW.
0800 AM SNOW 5 ESE BALTIC 43.73N 96.64W
02/28/2021 M1.0 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MH-56 GARRETSON 6.9 W.
0700 AM SNOW 3 ESE DIXON 43.36N 99.42W
02/28/2021 M3.0 INCH GREGORY SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-GY-3 GREGORY 8.7 N.
0700 AM SNOW 6 SSW HERRICK 43.04N 99.23W
02/28/2021 M1.8 INCH GREGORY SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0738 AM SNOW HOWARD 44.01N 97.53W
02/28/2021 M4.8 INCH MINER SD PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. STORM TOTAL.
0917 AM SNOW 2 S HURON 44.34N 98.22W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH BEADLE SD OFFICIAL NWS OBS
STORM TOTAL.
0730 AM SNOW 1 S HURON 44.35N 98.22W
02/28/2021 M2.7 INCH BEADLE SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0800 AM SNOW 1 ENE WALL LAKE 43.53N 96.95W
02/28/2021 M1.0 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MH-8 HARTFORD 6.4 S.
0800 AM SNOW HILLS 43.53N 96.36W
02/28/2021 M0.3 INCH ROCK MN COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION MN-RK-5 HILLS 0.2 NW.
0700 AM SNOW 2 W VILAS 44.01N 97.63W
02/28/2021 M1.6 INCH MINER SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MN-11 HOWARD 5.3 W.
0800 AM SNOW 1 NNE HURON 44.38N 98.21W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH BEADLE SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-BD-24 HURON 1.1 NNE.
0700 AM SNOW 6 SW IVANHOE 44.41N 96.34W
02/28/2021 M4.5 INCH LINCOLN MN COCORAHS
.
0900 AM SNOW 1 SSE MADISON 43.99N 97.09W
02/28/2021 M4.7 INCH LAKE SD CO-OP OBSERVER
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 1 SSE MITCHELL 43.72N 98.03W
02/28/2021 M1.7 INCH DAVISON SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 6 NW MONTROSE 43.77N 97.25W
02/28/2021 M3.0 INCH MCCOOK SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0800 AM SNOW MADISON 44.01N 97.11W
02/28/2021 M4.8 INCH LAKE SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-LK-8 MADISON 0.3 NW.
0930 AM SNOW 1 N MARSHALL 44.47N 95.79W
02/28/2021 M4.0 INCH LYON MN CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION MMLM5 MARSHALL.
0100 PM SNOW MINNEOTA 44.56N 95.99W
02/28/2021 M4.6 INCH LYON MN PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. STORM TOTAL.
0800 AM SNOW 1 NNW PIPESTONE 44.01N 96.33W
02/28/2021 M3.0 INCH PIPESTONE MN CO-OP OBSERVER
.
0700 AM SNOW 2 S PUKWANA 43.75N 99.18W
02/28/2021 M2.5 INCH BRULE SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0700 AM SNOW 4 WNW ROWENA 43.55N 96.63W
02/28/2021 M0.9 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
.
1150 AM SNOW REMSEN 42.81N 95.98W
02/28/2021 M0.1 INCH PLYMOUTH IA CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION RMSI4 REMSEN.
0700 AM SNOW 3 NE CROOKS 43.69N 96.78W
02/28/2021 M1.2 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MH-71 RENNER 4.1 NW.
0700 AM SNOW 6 W SINAI 44.24N 97.17W
02/28/2021 M5.0 INCH KINGSBURY SD COCORAHS
STORM TOTAL.
0900 AM SNOW 2 SSE SIOUX CENTER 43.05N 96.15W
02/28/2021 M0.3 INCH SIOUX IA CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION SIXI4 2.1 SE SIOUX
CENTER.
0700 AM SNOW 3 ESE SIOUX FALLS 43.52N 96.67W
02/28/2021 M0.2 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-MH-1 SIOUX FALLS 5.0 SE
ARPT.
0700 AM SNOW 4 SW STICKNEY 43.55N 98.49W
02/28/2021 M4.0 INCH AURORA SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-AR-8 STICKNEY 3.8 SW.
0800 AM SNOW TYNDALL 42.99N 97.86W
02/28/2021 M0.4 INCH BON HOMME SD CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION TYNS2 TYNDALL.
0807 AM SNOW 2 S VOLGA 44.30N 96.92W
02/28/2021 M6.8 INCH BROOKINGS SD PUBLIC
VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. STORM TOTALS.
0800 AM SNOW 1 ENE WALL LAKE 43.53N 96.95W
02/28/2021 M1.0 INCH MINNEHAHA SD COCORAHS
.
1130 AM SNOW WOONSOCKET 44.05N 98.28W
02/28/2021 M2.5 INCH SANBORN SD COCORAHS
COCORAHS STATION SD-SB-3 WOONSOCKET 0.2 WSW.
0900 AM SNOW 10 NNE FORESTBURG 44.16N 98.06W
02/28/2021 M2.0 INCH SANBORN SD CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION WSKS2 WOONSOCKET 13
NE.
0700 AM SNOW 2 NNE WORTHINGTON 43.65N 95.58W
02/28/2021 M0.3 INCH NOBLES MN CO-OP OBSERVER
CO-OP OBSERVER STATION WRNM5 WORTHINGTON 2
NNE.
&&The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
Severe (D2) drought conditions continued through March.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2021Every state in 2021This day in weather historyWarnings in Minnesota, March 2021
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: 946889.