The (Better late than never) Erik Files: October Starts Tomorrow!

**THIS DATE IN WEATHER HISTORY: On this date in 1961: Temperatures overnight dipped into the lower 20’s across much of the region. Locally reported lows were 25 degrees in Fort Meade, 21 degrees in Gillette and Spearfish, and only 8 degrees in Custer.**

Gather around everyone, it’s time for another edition of “The Erik Files.”

Today’s post will talk about tomorrow, which is October 1. We will go over the stats for the first of the Month, the end of the month, precipitation, snowfall, sunrise/sunset, the whole nine yards.

IN TERMS OF TEMPERATURE:

We start off with an average high of 68 degrees and an average overnight low of 40 degrees. By Halloween, our average high and low drops to 52 degrees and 29 degrees respectively. You read that right, below freezing lows are just around the corner.

PRECIPITATION:

We average just shy of 1.5″ (1.42″ to be exact). The record maximum precipitation was set in 1998 with 5.6″ of precipitation. If you hop into the DeLorean and set the time machine back to 1960, you’ll find that gas was a quarter, a loaf of bread was around 20 cents, a Polaroid Land Camera was $93.45, and we had no measurable precipitation that year here in Rapid City. (Technically, we had just a trace.)

SNOWFALL:

Yup, we average some. 1.6″ to be exact. (Now whether we can get our average in 1 storm like we did in September, only time will tell.) If you go back to 2013, we had 20.8″ of snow, which is good for a Record MAX Snowfall. 2 years later, in 2015, we had no snow recorded here.

SUNRISE/SUNSET

Well folks, the days will continue to get shorter. Our sunrise goes from 6:51 AM to 7:28 AM, and our sunset goes from 6:35 PM to 5:45 PM. We lose 1 hour, 28 Minutes of Daylight throughout the month.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Our last 6:00 PM Sunset for 2020 is October 21st. The next 6 PM Sunset is March 14th (when Daylight Saving Time begins) in which the Sunset will be at 6:57 PM

TOMORROW: We’ll compare the averages vs how we fared for the month of September. I’ll give you a hint: We had some snow!

See you here tomorrow!

-Erik Dean
Meteorologist
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