Previewing month of October weather

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — October starts Tuesday, and while temperatures will feel more like fall, don’t expect those types of temperatures to last.

September gave little rain across the area, but plenty of warm air. And I don’t see any reason why that trend will continue for much of October. Here’s our set-up.

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High pressure will be anchored to our southwest for at least the first half of the month. This ridge in the atmosphere helps keep our rain chances away as it keeps the main moisture supply, the Gulf of Mexico, closed.

So the landscape will continue to dry down across KELOLAND. I even went as far and did some early checking on dry Octobers. I found, since records have been kept, there have been 15 Octobers with no measurable rain in Sioux Falls 12 times. The whole month with no measurable moisture happened twice, 1952 and 1933.

While I’m confident the first half of the month will be dry, I’m not overly confident the second half of the month will be.

As far as temperatures, expect warmer than average afternoons and cool overnights. With the dry conditions it doesn’t take much to warm above average during the day, but it works the other way at night and we can quickly cool. It’s just a matter of time when our first frost comes.