Hills get slammed

Like most springs, Hill City, Keystone and the Black Hills saw a large winter storm drop a foot of snow on the area that started March 13 and lasted through March 15.

Melissa Smith, a meteorologist and hydrologist with the National Weather Service – Rapid City said this was just a typical winter storm the area sees this time of year.

“We had a strong pressure system that moved from the desert southwest to the northern high plains,” she said. “As it moved in it brought a whole bunch of moisture with it that caused a lot of snow to fall from the Black Hills region to northern Colorado.”

The snow wreaked havoc on travel conditions in and around the area. No travel advisories were posted March 14 and school was canceled in Hill City for March 15.

Hill City reported a foot of snow, as did a location a mile south of Hill City. Johnson Siding reported 11 inches of snow, and an area one mile west of Custer reported 24 inches.

Despite the shock the snow can cause, Smith reiterated that storms like this one are common.

“Oct. 24 and 25 was the last time we saw snow like this,” Smith said.

Last year, Hill City and the surrounding areas saw similar storms on March 13-14, April 1-2 and April 11-12.

This is the time of the year, Smith said, where the weather starts to get wetter. Winter (defined by the weather service as the months of December, January and February), typically sees an inch of moisture, she said.

“Now we are gearing up to our wettest time of the year, with our wettest time of the year being May and the second wettest with June,” Smith said. “Hopefully this can keep up and help out with our drought conditions.”

Area snow reports

Hill City: 12 inches

Four miles south of Hill City: 12 inches

Four miles south-southwest of Hill City: 12 inches

Five miles east-northeast of Custer: 12 inches

Johnson Siding: 11 inches

Mount Rushmore National Memorial: nine inches

One mile east-southeast of Pactola  Reservoir: seven inches