OCTOBER 2013 BLIZZARD IN WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA

The October 2013 blizzard was produced by a strong low-pressure system similar to conditions identified in other heavy snowstorms (e.g., Graves et al. 2003; Jurewicz and Evans 2004; Novak et al. 2004; Moore et al. 2005), with mesoscale to synoptic-scale forcing for ascent aided by jet streak coupling (Uccellini and Kocin 1987), a trough of warm air aloft(trowal; Martin 1999), and low- to midlevel frontogenesis. No trend was found in the number of days with PW above the 95th and 99th percentiles. [...]we cannot conclude, based on this limited observational dataset, whether the probability of extreme atmospheric water vapor has changed for the Black Hills region.