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South Dakota Nature

The Natural Phenomenon In South Dakota That Once Happened During The Winter

By Annie | Published December 29, 2018

Were you around in 1943? If you were – or know somebody who was – you have probably heard the story of what happened on January 22nd, when one of the strangest winter phenomena in American history occurred, thanks to a Chinook wind and SoDak’s regularly cold winter temperatures:

January 22, 1943 began like any other winter day in Spearfish, South Dakota, with temperatures dropping to a frigid, yet normal -4 degrees.

While freezing winter temperatures are nothing new for SoDak, what happened next is, as an unexplainable Chinook wind blew in at around 7:30 a.m., causing the temperature to rise from -4 to a comfortable 45 degrees in 2 minutes flat.

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The temperature increase did not stop there and by 9 a.m., residents of Spearfish were enjoying a baffling 54 degree morning.

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Once the Chinook winds died down, so did the temperature, causing the state to plummet from 54 degrees back down to -4 in less than a half hour.

Because of this dramatic shift in temperature, windows began to crack and people began to talk, including the National Weather Service, who had never seen anything like this neither before nor since.

To this day, the rare Chinook wind and dramatic temperature change cannot be explained, with SoDak still holding the record for the biggest change in temperature in the shortest amount of time.

For another eventful SoDak winter, check out In 1936, South Dakota Plunged Into An Arctic Freeze That Makes Last Year’s Winter Look Downright Mild.

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