Car thermometer registers 100 degrees in the shade in downtown Sioux Falls, 6/4/21. Yes, the radio is set to KELO-AM, 1320. KELO.com News photo by Todd Epp.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — The car thermometer at 5:14 p.m. Friday in the shade of a downtown city parking lot said 100 degrees.
Meanwhile, just a couple miles up the road at the National Weather Service at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport, the official temperature only registered 98 degrees.
So the car thermometer was wrong, but not by much.
But earlier in the day, Sioux Falls did break the previous record of 95 degrees set in 1977 with a high Friday of 99 degrees, according to the NWS.
98, 99, 100–in this range, what’s a degree or two difference make?
The only question that matters is this one: “Hot enough for ya?”
One colleague at KELO Radio said “No” when asked this question Friday morning. But he’s from Georgia. He said this is nothing. And Georgia is humid as well. Perhaps he should put on a jacket until it really gets warm.
At least it’s a dry heat. But so is your oven when you bake a cake.
And for the weekend, don’t expect any relief. More “good” news from the NWS and their Hazardous Weather Outlook for the Sioux Falls metro area:
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN…Saturday through Thursday
A prolonged stretch of above normal temperatures is expected into next week. While humidity levels will be reasonable, afternoon
heat index values may climb between 92 and 100 degrees at times. Strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible late Sunday
afternoon and evening but coverage should remain very isolated.
Heat index? That’s the same thing as windchill except completely different and in the summer. Of course, if we get a thunderstorm, we can turn on the humidity to go along with the heat, making the Georgia colleague happy.
The Weather Channel expects a high of “only” 97 degrees Saturday for Sioux Falls. The NWS says “only” 96 degrees for Saturday. Then we get the big cool down to 94 on Sunday per the Weather Channel. Get out the sweaters!
But think back just a week. We were complaining about it being so cool for Memorial Day weekend. Oh, the horror, the horror.
In the meantime, fire up the air conditioner and brew some sun tea. Coolness is going to be just a fond memory in the Sioux Empire for a while.
