The storm battering South Dakota has broken a record in Rapid City. The winter storm that is bearing down on much of the state left 20 inches of snow in 24 hours at the Rapid City Regional airport on Tuesday. Eric Helgeson is a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"The previous record for the airport was 18 inches on April 22nd in 2001. So yesterday was the snowiest 24 hour period ever at the Rapid City airport. And it's going to keep snowing for another hour or two. At this rate so this is going to turn out to be an epic storm," says Helgeson
Helegson says snowfall should taper off by this afternoon in the Black Hills. The major storm will continue to bring snow and ice to other areas as it crosses the state.
No travel is advised in Pennington County. Roads are covered in heavy snow and in some cases drifted shut. Dustin Willett is the Pennington County Emergency Manager.
"What we're urging people to use is good old fashioned common sense. It truly is difficult to travel out there. The plows are out this morning and obviously they clear the main arteries through town and around the county and the highways before they start clearing the feeder streets and the residential streets even if you have a four wheel drive," says Willett.
Willett says the wind associated with this storm kept the heavier snow from accumulating on power lines. He says while there's a lot of digging out to do, no major power outages were reported in Pennington County with this storm.