1970: Extremely cold air was over the area on this day in weather history in 1970. After an extremely cold night, daytime high temperatures struggled to reach the single digits below zero. Overnight low temperatures across the area were from 25 below to 34 below zero with daytime highs from 3 above at Sisseton to 12 degrees below zero at Pierre. Record low temperatures were set at Wheaton, Watertown, Pierre, and Kennebec. The temperature fell to 32 degrees below zero at Pierre, 33 degrees below zero at Watertown and Wheaton, and to 34 degrees zero at Kennebec. Aberdeen fell to 35 degrees below zero, Sisseton fell to 26 degrees below zero, Mobridge fell to 25 degrees below zero, Sisseton fell to 26 degrees below zero, and Timber Lake fell to 27 degrees below zero.

1862: The Great Flood of 1862 inundated much of the western United States west of the Rockies. California was hardest hit, with two to three feet of rain falling in about four weeks' time. Some locations received more than their normal annual rainfall between Christmas 1861 and the end of January 1862. The flooding was catastrophic, and one modern researcher has called it a 30,000-year flood event.

1893: The temperature jumped 42 degrees in 15 minutes at Fort Assiniboine, MT (near Havre), rising from -5 to 37.

1977: Snowflakes were observed at Homestead and Miami Beach in extreme southern Florida.