• October 2013 was a cool and very wet month across all of central and northeast South Dakota as well as west central Minnesota.  Many large storms moved across the region bringing record setting precipitation for several locations across our region.  The devastating early October blizzard that hit western Dakota and the Black Hills brought from 1 to 5 feet of snow along with very strong winds gusting from 50 to 70 mph.  The blizzard resulted in tens of thousands of cattle deaths, countless trees damaged, along with thousands of people without power.  Our region did receive some snowfall along with blizzard conditions west of the Missouri River with this storm.  Some locations west of the Missouri River received 6 to 10 inches of snowfall with Interstate-90 closed.  We also had a tornado occur in far eastern Traverse County on October 11^th downing some trees, and damaging a residence along with destroying a large shed.
• Rainfall amounts for October ranged from 4 to 6 inches across the region or from 2 to over 4 inches above normal.  All of the locations had one of their top ten wettest Octobers on record.  Mobridge and Timber Lake both had their record wettest October on record with nearly 6 inches of precipitation. Sisseton, Wheaton, Pierre, and Kennebec all had their third wettest October on record.  Aberdeen was the fifth wettest with Watertown placing in eighth.  Looking back at the wettest Octobers on record, Wheaton had 7.04 inches in 2009; Aberdeen had 7.29 inches in 1998; Sisseton had 7.96 inches in 1998; with 8.10 inches at Watertown in 1971.

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