Hot, Humid Weather in South Dakota

The information here tells how often heat combines with humidity in South Dakota cities to create uncomfortably muggy weather.

The apparent temperature, also known as the Heat Index, measures how hot the weather really feels, considering both temperature and humidity. For instance, a temperature of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 ° Celsius) along with 60 % humidity pushes the apparent temperature to 100 °F (37.8 °C).

At low levels of humidity, high temperatures seem cooler than what the thermometer reads. This sometimes is the case for hot weather in South Dakota.

These tables list the number of days when the actual temperature and the apparent temperature rose to least 95, 105 or 115 °F (35, 40.6 or 46.1 °C) for an hour or more. The totals are for the 30 years from 1978 to 2007.

The final table breaks the totals into yearly averages for the days when apparent temperatures reach 95 and 105 °F.

Total days with the temperature at least 95 °F
City Actual Apparent
Huron 273 503
Pierre 639 635
Rapid City 425 227
Sioux Falls 145 429
Total days with the temperature at least 105 °F
City Actual Apparent
Huron 12 86
Pierre 59 81
Rapid City 25 0
Sioux Falls 6 55
Total days with the temperature at least 115 °F
City Actual Apparent
Huron 0 1
Pierre 0 2
Rapid City 0 0
Sioux Falls 0 1
Average days a year of apparent temperature
City 95+ °F 105+ °F
Huron 17 3
Pierre 21 3
Rapid City 8 0
Sioux Falls 14 2
References

Peter Browning and Brian Walawender. 2009. A Climatology of Apparent Temperature. 21st Conference on Climate Variability and Change.

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