A Record Warm Thanksgiving But Change is Coming

What an unbelievable Thanksgiving Day!! Temperatures 15-35 degrees above average with plenty of sunshine and light winds.  So warm in fact that records were broken in seven cities across the south and it was the warmest Thanksgiving since records began in Sioux City and the second warmest in Sioux Falls and Huron. The top 5 warmest Thanksgivings for those three cities are listed below as well as the high temperatures today when they compare to records for this date.  The cities that broke their record are highlighted in pink.

You know as well as I know that all of this good weather has to come to an end sometime, and unfortunately it’s sooner rather then later.  Now if you are one of the few that hasn’t liked our warming trend, you are in luck as temperatures will begin falling Friday as a weak cold front moves through.  But things are only going to get worse as a pretty potent trough will dive into the Midwest and bring with it some cold air and plenty of wind.  Check out some of the cold air that will plummet into the area for Saturday…looks like the coldest will be diving into eastern South Dakota. South Dakota has been outlined in yellow with the coldest pocket of air circled in white.

The big part of this next shot of cold air though, wont be so much that its cold, but just how much wind is going to dive in as well. The two pictures below are the probability of sustained winds reaching a certain speed Saturday afternoon. In this case, the first picture represents 15 mph and the second picture represents 25 mph

Looks like 15mph sustained winds are a guarantee for Saturday with a 40-70 percent shot at winds sustained above 25 mph. Keep in mind that we are still more then a day away and those probabilities are likely to climb.  So basically, just get ready for much colder weather a whole bunch of wind, as Saturday is looking mighty ugly for anyone caught outside. Stay tuned to KDLT.com for the very latest.