Over a foot of rain fell on parts of South Dakota and Iowa in late June 2024, sending water over the banks of rivers.
Over a foot of rain fell on parts of South Dakota and Iowa in late June 2024, sending water over the banks of rivers. Overflowing rivers destroyed homes and bridges and inundated farm fields in the Midwestern states.
A front of dense moisture, drawn north from the Gulf of Mexico, parked over southeastern South Dakota and northwestern Iowa on June 20 and 21, unleashing torrential rainfall. Mitchell and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, recorded 6.5 and 7.7 inches of cumulative rain, respectively. It was the wettest two-day period for these cities in the National Weather Service’s (NWS) climate record, dating back to 1893. In Canton, South Dakota, near Iowa’s border, about 15 inches of rain fell on those days, according to NWS estimates.
The front brought rain to already saturated soils, according to the NWS National Water Center. The Great Plains region had already received 150–200 percent of its normal rainfall between mid-May and mid-June. Using soil moisture data from NASA’s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) center, NWS forecasted that the ground may not be able to absorb more water.
Read more at: NASA Earth Observatory
Photo credit: Wanmei Liang/NASA
