A powerful arctic cold that blanketed the Midwest brought below zero temperatures and extremely dangerous wind chills to the area over the weekend. The cold air plunge lasted through Tuesday morning and began to subside Tuesday afternoon with balmy single digit above zero temperatures.
A wind chill warning was in effect from 6 p.m. Friday to noon Tuesday across portions of South Dakota including Jerauld County and surrounding areas. Dangerously cold wind chills as low as 45 below zero were reported.
A blizzard warning was also issued beginning at midnight Friday, January 12. Winds gusted over 50 mph and caused snow accumulations of one inch and limited visibilities.
The National Weather Service urged extreme caution when traveling outside, as the wind chills had the potential to cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.
The weekend's wind chill and blizzard warnings prompted a variety of postponements, closures and cancellations:
POSTPONEMENTS
American Legion Post 14 Critter Hunt: Postponed until Jan. 26-27 First round of Boys 281 basketball tournament scheduled for Saturday was moved to Monday.
Mail delivery was limited to in-town only for 57382 routes.
Jerauld/Buffalo 4-H shooting sports meeting was postponed to Jan. 21 at 2 p.m.
The wrestling triangular scheduled for Monday, January 15 in Wessington Springs was postponed with reschedule date TBD.
CANCELLATIONS
Church cancellations for Sunday, January 14 included: Foothills Bible Fellowship, Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Immanuel Baptist, Templeton UCC, United Parish of Alpena, Springs Methodist Church.
CLOSURES
The Consignment Store in Wessington Springs was closed Saturday and Monday.
No organized Winter Park Activities were planned due to the frigid cold.
Sweet Grass closed at 1 p.m. Saturday, American Legion Prairie Lounge was closed Saturday and Sunday and Red Hog Pub & Casino was opened for limited hours Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. only.
While the option of closing, cancelling and postponing is a viable and often wise decision for area businesses and organizations, local agriculturists know all too well that the job of caring for livestock ramps up during severe weather as they face machinery breakdowns, downed fences and frozen water tanks.
