The Erik Files: Welcome to October!

THIS DAY IN WEATHER HISTORY: On this day in 1892: The record high of 96 degrees for the month of October was recorded in Rapid City.

Well folks, gather around the screen, it’s time for Season 1, Episode 26 of “The Erik Files.” I’ll give you 10 seconds to get prepared for today’s post.

**TIME IS UP.** October is here, and boy, oh boy did it feel like it this morning on the way to work! It was definitely a cup of coffee kind of morning with temps in the upper 30’s. (It was 37° at 9 a.m.)

So yesterday, we talked about the Month of October. We went over the Average highs and lows for the first and end of the month, as well as the precipitation, and snowfall averages. If by chance you missed that article, do me a favor and —> Please click here to get all caught up! Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s dive into the month that WAS.

STARTING WITH AT THE AIRPORT:

On the high end, we were right at average of 76 degrees. In terms of the low end, we had an average of 43 degrees, which is three degrees cooler than our 30 year average of 46 degrees.

In terms of precipitation, we were below normal in that department. Our average is 1.29″, and we had 1,11″ which was 0.18″ below the average.

This is the one that caught me off guard, and being a new Rapid City transplant, I had to do some research on this. You can thank the elevation for this statistic. We received no snow at the airport for the month. That takes us to the next bit of information below this sentence.

TIME TO LOOK AT DOWNTOWN RAPID CITY:

Hey, there’s that snow. Our average in downtown Rapid City is 0.1″ and we received one whole inch on September 7 (Which is the earliest measurable snowfall measured in September in Rapid City.) That is good enough to put us on the top 10 as one of the snowiest September’s on record (Tied for 6th Place). Since 1888, there have been only 14 years where we’ve had measurable snow in September downtown. They are as follows:

1927: 4.8″
1903: 2.8″
1965: 2.6″
2014: 1.6″
1895: 1.6″
2020: 1.0″
1955: 1.0″
2000 0.9″
1970 0.7″
1942: 0.5″
1934: 0.4″
1912: 0.4″
1961: 0.2″
1945: 0.1″

In terms of the rest of the stats: Our average high was 75 degrees, which was three degrees warmer than the 30 year average of 72 degrees. In terms of the low, we were on par. Our average was 50, our 30 year average was 50.

When it comes to Precipitation, our 30 year average is 1.54″, and we only received 1.22″, which is 0.32″ less than the 30 year average.

REAL QUICK…

We have a full moon tonight!

This is the first of two in the month of October. The second one will take place on Halloween Night. After that, the next time this will happen in October is in the year 2039.

Enjoy your Thursday!

-Erik Dean
Meteorologist
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