• It was like Moses parting of the red sea, except this was the red sea of radar reflections heading to Groton last night. Just as it got close to Groton, there was like an opening in the storm, a very small opening, and Groton just happened to go through this opening.
• As a result, the high winds experienced else where were not felt in Groton and the downpour of rain did not occur. The high wind gust was 28 miles an hour and only 0.03 of rain fell upon Groton.

July 2012 was very hot and dry across central and northeast South Dakota along with west central Minnesota with drought conditions expanding across the region. Average temperatures were from 4 to 6 degrees above normal which is extreme for a summer month.  Many locations had among their top ten warmest Julys on record.   Watertown recorded its third warmest July on record while Pierre, Timber Lake, and Kennebec all had their fourth warmest Julys on record. Mobridge tied for the seventh warmest July on record. The most interesting number for July was the average high temperature of almost 98 degrees at Kennebec. This was Kennebec's seventh warmest average high temperature on record.  Pierre's average high of nearly 97 degrees tied for the third warmest on record. It was also dry across the region with rainfall amounts ranging from a third of an inch to over 2 and a third inches below normal. Only Mobridge and Wheaton finished slightly above normal for the month.