Posted on 10/07/2013 6:29:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A record-breaking storm that dumped 4 feet of snow in parts of western South Dakota left ranchers dealing with heavy losses, in some cases perhaps up to half their herds, as they assess how many of their cattle died during the unseasonably early blizzard.
Meanwhile, utility companies were working to restore power to tens of thousands of people still without electricity Monday after the weekend storm that was part of a powerful weather system that also buried parts of Wyoming and Colorado with snow and produced destructive tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa. At least four deaths were attributed to the weather, including a South Dakota man who collapsed while cleaning snow off his roof. …
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The mountains to our west, coupled with the way weather systems come into the area from the south, west (over the mountains) or slip down from the Gulf of Alaska makes for very interesting weather and climate. Changes in the Pacific Ocean heating can make for years-long changes in the weather in the northern Rockies, as we’re only now starting to understand. This confluence of the way storms comes in here also makes for rapid changes in the weather that we don’t see coming.
So, is it “special”? It is what it is. It’s a unique area, given to rapid changes. There are other areas with severe weather where NOAA/NWS has much higher predictive skill. An example I’d use is the center of Oklahoma, where they have conditions that are highly favorable to horrible twisters.
While their weather is arguably worse than ours (I’ll shovel hundreds of feet of snow before I deal with one more of their twisters!) they seem to be able to see conditions change further out in time. My trip to Oklahoma this past May taught me that I think the Okies have a better grip on their weather models and forecasts a week out than we have a week out. When I was tromping around the west side of Oklahoma on 26 May, flailing about on a two-lane road, seeking to get over to I-35, a nice couple stopped and helped me. They saw my Wyoming plate and said to themselves “That fella from Wyoming looks way lost out here...” They were correct.
After they gave me directions how to get where I was going, I inquired “OK, now what about your tornadoes and what should a dumbass like me look out for?!”
They nicely told me “Oh, you’re here for how long? A week? Don’t worry about anything until next Friday. That’s when conditions will ripen up for real twisters. Until then, the t-storms will be just our usual t-storms. Stay away from poles and trees. And expect hail.”
Well, they were dead-nuts right. They called it and they called it to the day. An oilfield guy and his wife on the way back from church on a Sunday afternoon knew, with excellent skill, that the conditions would be ripe for a real twister that Friday - which was the Norman/OKC twisters that tore up the joint for six hours that Friday, May 31st. I was driving west out of Tishomingo, OK for the northwest corner of the state on that day - and I got to see the whole show. A real pucker-factor 11.
I thought often on that white-knuckle ride up the west side of Oklahoma on 31 May about how a couple on their way home from church six days prior had warned me of those conditions.
If you asked me what the weather is going to be in Wyoming two days’ time from now, all I can tell you is that we will likely have weather. I can’t tell you what it will be. And only rarely can NOAA tell you, either. If you’re making plans based on weather forecasts three to five days away in northern Wyoming... prepare to change your plans at the last moment.
I moved to Florida for about 6 months...didn’t take long before I was out of there!...am NOT a big city gal though I’ve lived in several....
Florida has bugs like you would not believe! I learned the only difference between north and south was..up here we go inside during the winter...down there they stay inside in the summer.....just too hot to go out into and muggy like you’re breathing thru a cloud!
ok I’ll check
Sorry to hear about your trees. We had minimal damage, thanks to only getting less than 12”; and the wind kept knocking a lot of the snow out of our trees before it had a chance to build up too heavily. Hot Springs itself wasn’t as lucky.
My mom just got rain, no snow but the wind was so bad it took out trees in down, even more out at the farmhouse. Stay safe you guys.
Thank you, Reaganaut. I am sorry to hear that you, your family and others have suffered great loss in this storm.
I have relatives up there and was astounded by the news reports of how fast the storm hit. Nineteen inches in a 24 hour period is frightening.
There was a blizzard which hit the city I was living in. Local government authorities eventually had to set up a curfew to keep sight-seeing people from getting stranded and dying on the side of the road, but people still went out in it anyway and died on the side of the road, stuck in a drift with their engine running.
Unfortunately in the first few hours of the blizzard, I had to drive home in it. It was snowing horizontally and so hard I could not see two feet in front of me. I prayed that I make it home, that my car would not stall nor hit anything. By the time I reached home though, huge drifts of snow blocked my street so I just parked it as much out of the way as I could then walked the rest of the way. Yet I still don’t think we had 19 inches of snow in one day like Rapid City has.
Also I was interested in looking at some hard numbers before the Global Warming/Global Cooling people start riding the story. Once a century sounds like a cycle to me, not a good cycle, but it’s doubtful they can find a way to blame it on human activity.
The financial loss to farmers and ranchers is devastating. Farmers and ranchers are the life blood of our country. My prayers for all who were impacted by this storm.
God Bless.
“Ah, wife has job. Wife gets second job. THERE is your backup. THANK YOU. You don’t QUITE live on the edge with wife working two jobs. :o) Good for you both.”
The third time is a charm. DUMBASS
It’s early October. Cattle are still out to pasture. Once the real winter hits, they’ll all be gathered up and penned because they’ll need to be fed all winter. You graze them as long as you can in the fall to save the feed you’ll need later. This storm was a freak, not the norm. I live in northwestern ND and grew up on a farm/ranch/dairy. BTW, although we live several hundred miles north of this storm, we were out golfing the past three days.
My son and his family live in Gillette. My daughter lives in RC. Her husband deployed about a week before the snow. I have been in the area a number of times and love it there. DD and SIL were in Alaska for three years. -54 there and some fool on here thinks Chicago is cold.
I only lived in South Dakota for one year. The first snow of the season was a blizzard in October that dumped 21 inches of snow.
It never got warm enough to melt it, and was followed by numerous snowstorms throughout the winter. Snow was piled so high it covered some of the windows. I went out one morning to get the mail, and sunk to my shoulders in the drifted snow.
Wow, that global warming will get you every time.
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Yup, got the zot.
Agreed, most people have no idea what cattle ranching is all about. You just don't go out on the porch and ring the bell and all the cattle come running home. If you lost 200 head of cattle, chances are your ranch isn't measured in acres but rather square miles and "round up" time usually takes several days instead of several hours.
no valleys
ravines can be death traps for cattle and sheep due to the blowing and drifting snow.
I have a friend in N.W. Kansas who has lost many cattle over the years due to severe snow storms. The cattle will move down into the ravines thinking they're being protected from the wind and snow but the ravine will drift over, trapping and in many cases, completely burying them. And in many cases, those trapped then become easy prey for the coyotes.
Now I KNOW you are from the Midwest. You say “golfing.” Most people on the planet who play golf say “play golf,” NOT “golfing.” :o)
I wasn't talking to you, so shut up and go away. No one needs your interrupting puerile vulgarity.
“The third time is a charm. DUMBASS
I wasn’t talking to you, so shut up and go away. No one needs your interrupting puerile vulgarity.”
And no one needs your continuing stupidity.
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