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Blizzard warning-SD weather adisory

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,517
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
I went to the Black Hills Wednesday afternoon for a doctors appointment on Thursday morning. I intended to stay a couple of days as I had some other things to take care of. When the storm warnings started, I beat it back to SE Montana and did manage to outrun the storm. I'm glad I did:

...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM FRIDAY TO 9 AM
MDT SATURDAY...

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 6 AM FRIDAY TO 9 AM MDT
SATURDAY.

* TIMING...RAIN WILL SWITCH OVER TO SNOW FROM WEST TO EAST
FRIDAY MORNING. THE SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT
BEFORE TAPERING OFF EARLY SATURDAY MORNING.

* MAIN HAZARD...SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 7 TO 15 INCHES ARE EXPECTED
WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. VERY STRONG NORTHERLY
WINDS OF 35 TO 55 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 70 MPH WILL COMBINE
WITH THE SNOW TO BRING NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES.

* IMPACT...THE SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL CREATE DANGEROUS
DRIVING CONDITIONS. THE HEAVY WET SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL
ALSO CAUSE DAMAGE TO TREES BRANCHES THAT STILL CONTAIN
FOLIAGE. POWER OUTAGES WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE.

Here is a view from a Belle Fourche SD webcam:
http://www.safetravelusa.com/sd/camera_images/SDEFC/2/latest.jpg

Stay safe everyone!
 
it has been raining here since about 6:00 last evening. suppose to switch over to snow by mid morning today. as always with weather, it depends on which forecast you hear but 10+ inches could be expected here.

the generator is on standby...
 
Don't know how you folks can live down there in that winter country.
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Oh god I am not going there. That storm would make a direction change and I would be snowed in the rest of the winter. Stay safe everyone saw on a friends FB page that deadwood got 3 feet or more . I get a cold shiver every time I see some one is getting snow after last winter.
 
First snow of the season here. This weather pattern started here early Thursday morning. First with thunder and lightening, then rain. There was .40" in the rain gauge after that. this was followed by mist and light ever since. friday morning had another .40 of rain., haven't checked it since. Last night, just after dark it begin to snow. Was about an inch on the ground this morning. with high wind. There may be three inches now. Temperature has stayed above freezing so even though the trees still have leaves are not effected. Supposed to be clear and nice tomorrow. Temperature is 41 degrees here now, so it will likely get down below freezing tonight.
 
They were saying we were suppose to get from 6 to 14 inches of snow. Well, now its over and the ground is bare and we have 3.8 inches of rain!!! This is much better than the white stuff. This will be the first time in 3 years that the ground will freeze. At least has the possibility to freeze. Its looking good.
 
You're lucky to have missed the snow BRG. We've got a mess with cows going through fences and getting mixed up with the neighbors. I spent all day trying to keep cows off the highway. At least we never lost power like so many have. Life is good?! :lol: 8)
 
After the storm: we seem to have weathered it very well, given that we still have our cattle in summer pastures. It seems we are on one of the 'edges', with little snow here at home, a few inches on a place north east of Kadoka. Lost a couple of cows and calves, which would have been sold as culls, with the cows maybe having bad teeth, and at least one calf has been orphaned, and getting by robbing for a few months.

We got a little over 4 inches of moisture, mostly rain. it ran just a little water, the guys not mentioning any significant rise in level of our mostly pretty low stock dams. First significant rains since early September, and believe that was less than a half inch back then.

Only a few miles west of us there was 8" or more of snow and sounds like the winds were mutch stronger. Cattle had got chilled from the inch of rain which fell before the snow, judging by how it was here. However, the snow melted as it fell, not piling up at all on our creek bottoms where we live, and only a very few inches accumulated 'on top'. Maybe 250 to 400' higher elevations. We have heard some very hard stories of big losses of even adult cows. And cattle in this area have been in very good shape due to good grass growth all season.

Deadwood got 48" and Lead got 44" according to what we saw on FOX News last night. Our son in southwest Rapid City got 30". It was so wet he only sank in about six inches when walking on it. He is a house builder, so started to walk about a mile to one of his job sites to get a pay loader when a woman on a snowmobile offered him a ride. Guess he isn't used to that form of transportation and the speed she went scared him pretty badly! He was able to plow part of his street and several neighbors' driveways.

It will be hard to hear of the hardships coming to friends who have lost significant numbers of their cattle. We seem continually to be tested when we are so dependent upon weather to make our living.

mrj
 
From the few people I have talked to this storm could be on of the biggest cattle killers ever for SD. I lost 2 cows and 3 calves which is no big deal but one of my neighbors lost 50 cows and 25 calves. My cousin lost 15 cows so far and is still looking for the rest with some being found 8 miles from where they started. Another guy lost 40 cows. This is just from a small area near Martin, I'm sure it was worse north and west of us.

The combination of the rain turning to a blizzard with cattle on their summer range and no winter coat yet was the perfect storm for death loss. I wouldn't be surprised if the loss totals are huge.
 
You are so right, FH. It just makes us sick to think of the losses. Every phone call seems to bring news of worse situations. From here in every direction except northeast, at this point ( about three miles southwest of Midland, SD) there seem to be varying numbers of cattle lost.

Also hard to think about is report that we are forecast to get more snow this week-end. Most of this area did not get huge amounts of snow, so probably don't have to worry about flooding, which is forecast for the Black Hills, esp. Rapid Creek.

There will be some truly devastating losses, and entire communities in this multi-county area will be hit financially, as well as emotionally, by the losses.

mrj
 
Big Swede said:
From the few people I have talked to this storm could be on of the biggest cattle killers ever for SD. I lost 2 cows and 3 calves which is no big deal but one of my neighbors lost 50 cows and 25 calves. My cousin lost 15 cows so far and is still looking for the rest with some being found 8 miles from where they started. Another guy lost 40 cows. This is just from a small area near Martin, I'm sure it was worse north and west of us.

The combination of the rain turning to a blizzard with cattle on their summer range and no winter coat yet was the perfect storm for death loss. I wouldn't be surprised if the loss totals are huge.
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Big Swede, I honestly got the chills reading your post. Who could have ever dreamed of this happened, especially this early? A person feels so helpless,
as, outside of finding the live ones, there is nothing anyone can do!! Makes you realize how inconsequential humans are in the universe. So sad to lose all those cattle and like gcreek, I feel bad for the cattle that died as well as the ranchers who lost them. :cry: :cry: :cry:
 
WyomingRancher said:
Just awful. Has anybody heard from Justin?
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we escaped with no damage here, counting my blessings for sure. only ended up with 6-8 inches and most of that was melted off by saturday afternoon. lost power for 30 hours but that is pretty minor. i summer 200 pair south of here about 30 miles where they got much more snow but all have been accounted for and none lost. some of the horror stories i have heard makes me sick. prayers go out to all those ranchers affected, i can't even wrap my mind around what some of them must be going through.
 
I just reread this thread and what strikes me is that when I wrote my post on Sat evening I had no idea how bad things were going for everyone. I knew about my losses but that was less than half a percent loss, so I assumed everyone else was going through similar troubles. I found a 3 year old bull dead today. I would have thought a big strong ton bull could have weathered about any storm. Crazy! Anyway my thoughts and prayers are with all out there who are trying to get through this thing.
 
Justin said:
WyomingRancher said:
Just awful. Has anybody heard from Justin?
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we escaped with no damage here, counting my blessings for sure. only ended up with 6-8 inches and most of that was melted off by saturday afternoon. lost power for 30 hours but that is pretty minor. i summer 200 pair south of here about 30 miles where they got much more snow but all have been accounted for and none lost. some of the horror stories i have heard makes me sick. prayers go out to all those ranchers affected, i can't even wrap my mind around what some of them must be going through.
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I am glad to hear you and others came through in good shape. My heart goes out to those who didn't have the same luck. I hope you don't encounter much fallout from such a stressful storm, and that your cattle health stays decent. What a mess.
 

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