WEATHER

The coldest places in South Dakota during the polar vortex

Makenzie Huber
Argus Leader

Sioux Falls was cold Wednesday morning. But places to the north were worse.

The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls had at least four locations in its forecast area that had wind chills colder than minus-60 degrees.

Even reading that made you shiver, right?

We've been through the worst of it though: there's a 70-degree increase from Wednesday temperatures to Saturday's forecast.

Wind chills in northeastern South Dakota were around minus-55 degrees. Sisseton bottomed out at minus-59 degrees — the coldest in the state. Eureka was the runner-up at minus-56 with Watertown right behind it at minus-55.

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Minnesota had cities regularly in the minus-60 range. Within the range of NWS Sioux Falls, Cottonwood, Minnesota was the coldest at minus-63 wind chill.

West River had it easy, comparatively. Rapid City was at just minus-17 and Mount Rushmore saw a minus-2 degree wind chill.

The highest-recorded windchill for the whole of Polar Vortex Jayden was 3 degrees (I know, above zero) in downtown Spearfish at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

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Sioux Falls reached a minus-47 degree wind chill. It wasn't low enough to break a record, which still holds from 1899, but it was enough to make us bitter.

We just have to remind ourselves that Saturday's forecast is a 40-degree high.