Fact brief: Did a SD city register the fastest temperature change in recorded history?

Yes. On Jan. 22, 1943, Spearfish recorded a temperature increase of 49 degrees Fahrenheit in 2 minutes and a temperature drop of 58 degrees in 27 minutes. Both still stand as records more than 80 years later.

At 7:30 a.m. on that day, it was minus 4 degrees. Two minutes later, thermometers shot up to 45 degrees. Then at 9:30 a.m., the temp crashed back downward from 54 degrees to minus 4.

The geographic nature of the Black Hills makes the region prone to these frontal conditions. The National Weather Service described the event as “warmer Pacific air (rolling) like an ocean tide along the northern and eastern slopes of the Black Hills” before the cold returned. Windows fogged up and some glass cracked.

The greatest temperature change in a 24-hour period was in Loma, Montana, on Jan. 14-15, 1972, when mercury rose 103 degrees from minus 54 to 49.

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