Yes, that red splotch on the 10 hour fuel moisture map is the Black Hills. Because of poor ranching practices on the plains and public lands failures on the Black Hills National Forest the grassland fire danger will reach the high category today for parts of the permanent disaster area that is South Dakota.
The absence of snow cover West River is obvious in the image below. Darren Clabo is South Dakota State Fire Meteorologist & Research Scientist based at the School of Mines and Technology. The dark images are part of a burn scar where winds blew off the snow cover.
Anyone know of why there are "dark spots" in the snow just east-southeast of Faith (note the arrow)? No big stands of trees there. Unpicked crops? #sdwx pic.twitter.com/mD9PUzcdge— Darren Clabo (@SDFireWeather) February 21, 2020
The reason for the "melted areas" following particular property lines is that land owner has applied an ag chemical that is reacting with and melting the chemically nucleated snow. I intend to investigate what the chemical applied is, as it could be highly lucrative as an additive to roadway de-icing programs, etc.
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