February 2, 2014

The Day the Temperature Went Nuts

The Day The Weather Went Nuts
in Spearfish, South Dakota


On January 22nd, 1943 the weather in Spearfish, South Dakota went just a little crazy. When people woke up that morning at 7:30 AM they were greeted with below zero temperatures, -4 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. So they did what any average person would do and went to suit up for a very cold day, but something changed. In exactly two minutes the temperature outside had jumped to 45 degrees, or a 49 degree temperature rise in just two minutes! Over the next hour and a half the temperature would continue to creep up to 54 degrees, which was making for a nice January morning temperature- with a reverse wardrobe. For two hours the people of Spearfish and now also Rapid City had moderately warm January temperatures before it happened again. At 9:27 AM the temperature once again had an extreme fluctuation, dropping once again to -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

This bizarre weather event was later blamed on inversions, or cold and warm air moving back and forth at the base of the Black Hills. See the pictures below (courtesy of the NWS) for a more detailed view of the days weather events:

The Front as it moved back and forth.

MDUC, Rapid City Temperature Recording Chart


It was reported locally that the temperature had changed so quickly that it had cracked the glass windows on several vehicles. Spearfish, South Dakota now holds the world record for for the fastest temperature change on record. 

For more information please see the link below, which is the official weather review for this event.

xoxo disaster girl

1 comment:

  1. That's really great to know. Doing temperature switch calibration is a very important thing.Bu the can can it be done with station and instrument to measure wind speed?

    ReplyDelete