RAPID CITY, S.D. – Cleanup was underway in several Black Hills area communities Sunday from a strong winter storm that dropped over two feet of snow on some areas.
In Sturgis, crews began plowing the residential areas afer spending most of Saturday trying to keep the town’s main arteries open.
No travel advisories were lifted in Rapid City, Spearfish and Sturgis Sunday, although many roads were snowpacked and icy with many large snowpiles needing to be moved.
Schools in Rapid City and Douglas are closed Monday and Spearfish schools are on a two hour late start. In Rapid City, the district says some of its staff members didn’t make it home due to the weather plus they needed more time to clear out snow.
The blizzard also caused power outages around the area, including in Rapid City, Box Elder and Hermosa.
Forecasters say the amounts of snowfall and moisture with this system were impressive for this time of year. In fact, several new records were set in Rapid City at the NWS Office for precipitation and snowfall due to this event:
The 14.5″ of snow for November 30 set a new daily and monthly snowfall record. The previous monthly 1-day snowfall total was 10.6″ on November 6, 1998.
The 15.9″ of snowfall was reported in 2 days (November 29-30). This was the greatest 2-day November total. The previous record for November was 12.5″ November 21-22, 2003.
And, the 2019 November Snowfall was 26.0″. This is the highest amount of snowfall ever reported in November. The previous record was 22.4″. However, there wasn’t any records kept in 1985, when the Rapid City Airport received 33.6″ of snow for the month.
Some of the highest snow totals reported were 30-inches in Lead, along with drifts of 3 to 5 feet.
Spearfish reported 23-inches, 21 inches at Black Hawk, 19-inches at Tilford, 18-inches at Sturgis and 16-inches at Summerset.
