Rainfall amounts that rolled through Sioux Falls Thursday night was staggering. Even weather experts found the immense amount of precipitation hard to fathom.

National Weather Meteorologist Todd Heitkamp says the staggering numbers defy logic. “We haven’t seen rainfall of this magnitude. There is an automatic weather gauge down by Sertoma Park where heavy rain occurred, but not the heaviest rainfall.

“Within a 25-minute time frame from 7:55 PM to 8:20 PM that area picked up 2.73 inches of rain. Seven-tenths of that rain fell in five minutes. That’s unbelievable. So when people say, ‘Can you put that in perspective?’ I wish I could. I have no frame of reference and we’re trying to wrap our arms around that at the (National Weather Service) office.”

Heitkamp’s example is just one of the accounts that boggle the mind. More analysis shows other areas without electronic monitoring were even more perplexing. Southwest Sioux Falls saw the highest totals with general amounts of more that six inches west of Interstate 29.

One particular graphic from the National Weather Service shows a couple areas reporting over seven inches of rain. The majority of precipitation fell within a window between 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM. However the imbedded nature of the rain was very isolated. One report between Hartford and Crooks only saw .34 inches of rain.

 

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