Todey: South Dakota facing climate crisis

As South Dakota's GOP governor denies human impact on climate change and the state's legislature ponders the end days some alarms are being sounded.

South Dakota state climatologist Dennis Todey spoke Tuesday during the Southeast Experiment Farm’s annual meeting, held at the Parker Community Center. He noted the long-range findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) national climate assessment. “The NOAA says we’ve seen temperature change during the last 100 years,” he said. “Climate change is real.” Last year’s cool weather in the state actually contained warming in a different sense, Todey said. He pointed to the statistics for eastern South Dakota from last June, July and August. “The big difference is in the low temperatures, not the high temperatures,” he said. “We’re warming, but we’re warming differently. We’re seeing higher nighttime temperatures.” Midwest farmers could step in and start growing crops that are no longer going to be grown in California and other Western states, Todey said. “Can you do something here that they can’t do there?” he asked his Parker audience. [Randy Dockendorf, Yankton Press and Dakotan]

Weeks before the first official flood predictions of the late winter, levels on the state's rivers are very low. Todd Heitkamp at the Sioux Falls office of the National Weather Service says it's pretty obvious why.

High temperature records have been falling throughout the region.