Rapid City Weather Data Revised
Weather records for the Rapid City Regional Airport have been revised to more accurately represent conditions at that location. The official data for the airport now consists of only observations taken since the weather office moved to the Rapid City Airport (now Ellsworth Air Force Base) in 1942 and the Regional Airport in 1949. Previously, the airport records included observations taken by the National Weather Service at various locations in downtown Rapid City since 1888. Because conditions in town are significantly different than those on the plains just east of the city, those observations have been removed from the data base.
The changes do not affect the temperature and precipitation normals, which are calculated for the period from 1971 through 2000.
The data base for the Rapid City National Weather Service office (East Rapid City) does include records from 1888 through 1970 and observations taken at the current office from 1996 through the present date. In 1971, the weather instruments were moved from downtown to west Rapid City.
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