Drought in South Dakota, March 1 to 31, 2021

Name: Drought in South Dakota, March 1 to 31, 2021
Start: 2021-03-01T00:00
End: 2021-03-31T23:59
Location: South Dakota

March 1 to 31, 2021 · NWS ABR · 11 events in 11 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 11 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: 11

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.

Severe drought conditions, which began in late February, continued through March and became extreme by the end of March across north central South Dakota. The month on the whole was well above average temperature-wise, and precipitation was near average to well below average across central and north central South Dakota. Mobridge recorded their 4th driest March on record. Soil moisture and stock ponds continued to be depleted. The Grassland Fire Danger reached high to extreme levels several times throughout the month, with grassland fires reported as well.

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 Feb 28, 11:22 PM CST, 38 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 28, 11:22 PM CST, 38 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion...UPDATED
National Weather Service Aberdeen SD
1122 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

.UPDATE...
Issued at 842 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

Forecast is doing okay and no major changes planned this evening.

&&

.SHORT TERM...(This Evening through Monday Night)
Issued at 317 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

The issue through Monday night will be the chances of light snow in
the far northeast cwa tonight along with high temperatures on Monday
over the bare ground/snow covered areas. For tonight, a short wave
trough and surface low pressure area will descend out of the
northwest along a frontal zone. The satellite and surface obs were
already showing mixed layer cu over nc sd this afternoon with high
level clouds spreading in overhead. For tonight, expect waa mid and
high level clouds to spread in from the northwest. Added snow pops
to the far northeast cwa as it looks like the waa may produce some
decent radar returns. All ops and hi-res models show some light qpf
moving southeast across our far ne cwa. Then behind this will come a
cold push of air/front after midnight with winds becoming northeast.
Along this boundary will also be some stratus clouds mainly
affecting the eastern cwa into Monday. On Monday and Monday night,
surface high pressure behind the front will build quickly to the
east with surface winds turning from northeast to south through the
day across the cwa. Lowered highs over the snow covered areas and
bumped them up over the bare ground areas. The highs on Monday
should be similar to todays highs. On Monday night, despite mostly
clear skies, steady southwest winds will only allow temperatures to
fall into the 20s by Tuesday morning. Also, expect strong downslope
winds in the Sisseton Hills region with strong winds over 40 knots
under the warm inversion.

.LONG TERM...(Tuesday through Sunday)
Issued at 317 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

Main focus in the extended continues to deal with high temperatures.
Lowered highs across the southern CWA on Tuesday where they picked
up a general 2 to 4 inches of snowfall. It would not appear all of
this will go away by Tuesday, so expect snow cover to influence
highs. Further north where there is no snow, should be a rather mild
day as good mixing west to northwest winds develop with mild 925mb
temps. Went ahead and increased highs a few degrees across north
central SD into ABR. Hard to say if there will be any residual snow
cover across southern areas on Wednesday, but perhaps there could
be, so did temper readings there just a bit. Overall though, the
trend was maintained in raising temps above that of inherited
values. May have to be careful during periods where surface flow
seems more easterly, which is not a good pattern for maximum
warming. We do see this during a few periods in the extended.

&&

.AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Monday Night)
Issued at 1119 PM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

Terminals KABR,KATY,KPIR,KMBG

Mostly VFR skies/vsbys are expected. However, MVFR cigs could
slide across the northeast part of the state overnight and into
Monday morning, along with some light snow.

&&

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

UPDATE...TDK
SHORT TERM...Mohr
LONG TERM...TMT
AVIATION...TDK

Hazardous weather outlook, Feb 28, 9:22 AM CST, 14 hours 38 minutes before

Hazardous Weather Outlook...UPDATED
National Weather Service Aberdeen SD
922 AM CST Sun Feb 28 2021

MNZ039-046-SDZ003>011-015>023-033>037-045-048-051-011530-
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-
922 AM CST Sun Feb 28 2021 /822 AM MST Sun Feb 28 2021/

This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for west central Minnesota,
central South Dakota, north central South Dakota and northeast
South Dakota.

.DAY ONE...Today and 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.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Feb 28, 6:16 PM CST, 5 hours 44 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD
616 PM CST SUN FEB 28 2021

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0614 PM     SNOW             GARY                    44.80N 96.46W
02/28/2021  M6.0 INCH        DEUEL              SD   TRAINED SPOTTER

&&

DYE

Local storm report, Feb 28, 7:00 PM CST, 5 hours before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ABERDEEN SD
700 PM CST SUN FEB 28 2021

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0600 PM     SNOW             KENNEBEC                43.91N 99.86W
02/28/2021  M3.5 INCH        LYMAN              SD   CO-OP OBSERVER

&&

DYE

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

11 drought. Local standard time, as filed.

Drought, Corson

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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, Campbell

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Campbell forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.771, -100.052 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Walworth

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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)

Drought, Potter

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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, Sully

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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, Stanley

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 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, McPherson

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: McPherson forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.766, -99.221 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Edmunds

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Edmunds forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.419, -99.215 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Faulk

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 11:59 PM CST
Where: Faulk forecast zone
Reported by: Drought Monitor
Coordinates: 45.071, -99.145 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Drought, Hyde

When: March 1, 12:00 AM CST to March 31, 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)

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 2021 Every state in 2021 This day in weather history Warnings in South Dakota, March 2021

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: 950943, 951056, 951059, 951060, 951062, 951063, 951064, 951066, 951067, 951068, 951069.