More rain fell Sunday in Sioux Falls than any other day in the city’s recorded history.
The National Weather Service said 5.41 inches of rain had fallen by mid-afternoon. Most of the rain fell during a period of about eight hours beginning around 1 a.m.
Sioux Falls needed and wished for some rain this summer.
— NWS Sioux Falls (@NWSSiouxFalls) August 7, 2022
We received the most rain in one day ever this morning!
5.41 inches is now the big number to beat for a single day rainfall on August 7th, the month of August, or on any date. pic.twitter.com/uAcQpKpHUu
Jeff Chapman is a National Weather Service meteorologist.
“We just had a very persistent and narrow band of heavy rainfall set up across the Sioux Falls metro during the overnight hours," Chapman said. "The orientation of that boundary and where the development was occurring just kept the storms regenerating in the same area — the same narrow band. It was hardly much more than a county wide.”
Chapman said there was street flooding in some areas, but flood impacts were surprisingly few. He said the ground was dry and absorbed a lot of moisture. Sioux Falls was about 5 inches below normal precipitation for the year prior to Sunday.
The record rain comes amid a run of historic weather events across the nation and the globe that some climatologists are linking to climate change. Those events include a historic heat wave in Europe and deadly flooding in Kentucky.
Just last week, Sioux Falls had its hottest day since 1995.
Monday's forecast for Sioux Falls is dry with highs in the mid-70s.