If you’ve been in South Dakota for longer than 5 minutes, odds are you have heard this phrase. South Dakota Weather sucks! Mostly from people that have lived here for quite awhile. After talking to people from other states and trying to explain exactly what South Dakota weather is like. I started to realize, that maybe there is some truth to the phrase.
Let me start by saying in third grade I learned that South Dakota has a changing seasonal climate. So it changes depending on the season. This is only partially true. Since it really depends on the year and what mother nature feels like. There are a lot of us that don’t remember a spring in some years. In fact, if you look back, there have been missing seasons in a lot of years. There have been years where it was 80 degrees in January. Where it never got above 90 in July and August. And years where the leaves didn’t hit the ground yet and it had already snowed.
In my mind, this just disproves my teacher’s theory. Our climate isn’t a changing climate. It’s a beast that has it’s own rules.
Let’s face it though. This is child’s play compared to our severe weather. Let’s start with blizzards that buried us in feet of snow and closed down the entire state. And even ice storms that knocked out power for months.
Anybody remember “Tornado Tuesday”. There was a recorded 125 tornadoes confirmed. Even though they think there were many more unconfirmed ones.
Go ahead and look up the world record hailstone. You will see that it fell in Vivian, South Dakota and measured 18 1/2 inches around. You read that right. That’s a bowling ball dropping from the sky. Explain that one to your insurance company.
Now, every state says that “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a day”. In South Dakota you only need to wait minutes. And we are serious about it. In 1943 in Spearfish South Dakota, the temperature went from -4 F to 43 F in two minutes. Read that again and think about it. And no. It’s not a typo. This is only one of a list of crazy temperature changes in the world record books for South Dakota.
Explaining this to people from other states gets some head scratching. The summer temps can crawl to triple digits. The winter temps can crawl to double digit negatives. Does this make the statement true then? Does South Dakota’s weather suck?
We live in a world where every one wants to see black and white. Yes and no. The reality is that the world is thousands of shades of grey. So the answer? You will see what you want to see. If I’m talking about the weather or anything else in life. Perception is the key.
Some people travel from around the world to see a South Dakota style thunder storm. Some like being cuddled up with there loved ones for a few days with out the option to leave. And maybe this is what South Dakota weather has going for it. It gives you a variety you will never predict. And makes each day, just a bit more unique. So in a world of black and white, South Dakota gives you color.
Until next time.