Rapid City/Hills question? (Sioux Falls, Aberdeen: real estate, sex offenders, low crime)

[CA central coast]

how far out of Rapid City do you have to get to where you can beat that miserable summer heat and not get covered in snow like some are saying the weather is like in Spearfish. vistied the area a few years ago on a road trip (drove across the middle of the state on my way back home to CA from MN) Spent the night in Rapid City, tried to visit the Hills in one day. No way did I do it justice, wish I could have stayed longer. Incidently, I purposely drove through the City of Brookings. Why? because about 6 years ago I saw it on a website that listed the "best" 420 cities to live. Brookings...number 5, with 2 number 1 finishes in their ranking categories. Maybe I was expecting too much, I didn't see the 5th best place in the US to live. Owatonna (MN) was I think #1, drove through there also. #1 place in the nation? big letdown. Sincerly, no offense to anyone just commenting. Loved the Black Hills.

[Jammie]

No offense taken. The towns you mentioned are fine, BUT top in the nation? I wonder what their criteria was other then a good economy and a reasonable cost of living and a low crime rate. It probably wasn't the weather or the scenery.

Could you be a bit more specific in your question? Rapid has probably got the most temperate climate in the entire state. Hot Springs may be somewhat comparable to that. What I'm saying is that our entire state does get very high temps~east side with humidity~west side very little humidity. Our entire state also gets WAY too much snow for me.

[DannyBanany]

I don't think I understand your question. How can you have extreme heat in Rapid City while it is snowing only 40 miles away in Spearfish? Doesn't seem possible. If you are wondering where most Rapid Citians go to beat the heat, the answer is way up in the Black Hills. It is usually at least 10 degrees cooler at Pactola than down in the city.

Now 420 cities... I'm guessing you are referring to marijuana? I've never heard that Brookings is a refuge for potheads, but Spearfish is probably the most "granola" type town in South Dakota so I'd check there!

[CA central coast]

After re-reading my question, it didn't make sense to me Lets see if I can get this straight. Where would be the perfect area (weather wise) to live? The foothills maybe? somewhere where it doesn't get too hot in the summer and your not buried in snow in the winter. It seems that Rapid City gets really hot in the summer and really cold in the winter. My only reference is occasionally watching the weather channel. I remember seeing Rapid City being like 117 or 120 degrees last summer. I think it was hotter there than Death Valley, CA. That really surprised me. I just thought maybe outside of town, heading into the Hills, you might get areas with nice climate year round? I have been reading the other threads, but I'm still a little confused. So Rapid City gets hardly any snow in winter? but it's super cold? how hot do summers normally get? nicer climate, Rapid City or Hot Springs?

Also, about the Brookings thing. I'll try to find the website, it was awhile ago. Brookings was listed in the top 5 "best" places to live in the US. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm pretty positive Brookings did finish #1 in a couple of categories. I just think maybe I was expecting Norman Rockwell to greet me at the city limits.

[DannyBanany]

Rapid City probably has the best climate in South Dakota. It is on the eastern slope of the Black Hills so the snow tends to fall further east on the prairie and it really gets deep in the higher elevations of the Black Hills. I'm not sure if Rapid City has ever reached 117 or 120 degrees though. That's a little bit too high.

Rapid City gets snow, but it melts very quickly because temps warm up frequently in the winter and sunshine is abundant. Winters are not very cold here either and there is little moisture so temperatures are not as extreme.
Hot Springs is very similar to Rapid City. Spearfish gets cooler and usually gets the most snow.

[Jammie]

Yup, what Danny said. Rapid City has the best climate in our state. Even though the Deadwood/Lead area is very nice, you can get bombarded with snow there. Have you ever seen old westerns where they'd talk about Deadwood Gulch? Well, it really is in a gulch/ravine and they can really fill up with snow.

Yes, Rapid does get a lot of snow, too. Our entire state does, but many days warm up enough in RC that some of it can melt. Some areas of the state can see a snowfall in late Sept. or early Oct. and don't warm up enough to melt it all. More just keeps coming and piling up and it'll finally all melt by the end of April. That's not a normal year, but it happens.

Here's a couple of sites that you can play with to get comparisons for temps and snowfall~

Climatology Comparison for Rapid City, SD - weather.com


Rapid City, South Dakota (SD) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders

There's a thread that's a bit further back that someone was asking about the average wind speed. They mentioned that the CD stats averaged the windspeed at 11 mph. All I can say about that is that anyone who's interested would just need to check out the weather site daily to get an idea of our winds. Rapid City could be about the least windy are in the state.

[CA central coast]

bizjournals: Not Found
Morgantown Selected #1 dreamtown in Country by BizJournals.com


OK, I'm sorry, I stand corrected. Brookings was not in top 5, but did finish 1st in two categories out of the top 141 "Dreamtowns". This is according to the second link. Aberdeen and Watertown were also included in the top 141. The first link is more recent with Pierre #8 and Brookings #21. out of 577 (I didn't look at the entire list). Does anyone have any opinions on rankings like this? I visited a few of these towns a few years, I just didn't see it. Maybe I was expecting a life altering experience. I mean this stuff is coming from a nation publication, they must know what thwy are talking about, right? And please, I mean no offense to residents of those cities. Maybe I'm wrong, can you honestly judge a city in one or two days?

[msdmckee]

As a former residnet of Custer, I have to vote for it's weather as superior over Rapid City...

It is generally 10 degrees warmer in the winter and 10 degrees cooler in the summer. It snows, but the roads clear off fairly well and you can get around with just all wheel drive.

I hope the hot summer temperatures last year are an abberation.......didn't seem to be any place you could go to get cool.

If you look at real estate sites, note how many homes have/or don't have central air conditioning. That will tell you how hot the weather can get on an overall average! Not many houses in Custer need central air. Nights are cool and there is generally a breeze during the day. Not much big wind (as in WY) but you can get occasional gusts.

[Dan Castello]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

bizjournals: Not Found
Morgantown Selected #1 dreamtown in Country by BizJournals.com


OK, I'm sorry, I stand corrected. Brookings was not in top 5, but did finish 1st in two categories out of the top 141 "Dreamtowns". This is according to the second link. Aberdeen and Watertown were also included in the top 141. The first link is more recent with Pierre #8 and Brookings #21. out of 577 (I didn't look at the entire list). Does anyone have any opinions on rankings like this? I visited a few of these towns a few years, I just didn't see it. Maybe I was expecting a life altering experience. I mean this stuff is coming from a nation publication, they must know what thwy are talking about, right? And please, I mean no offense to residents of those cities. Maybe I'm wrong, can you honestly judge a city in one or two days?

These types of surveys and ratings assume several things:

1. That you are married and have children. If you don't then these aren't the places for you. There generally isn't a real active night life in these locations and if you move there looking for a spouse you probably made a huge mistake.

2. You care about the quality of your home life, local schools and crime rate. If these are not real important, again, these places won't have all that much to offer you. (unless you live in some super high crime area, in which case you would never be able to finance such a move anyway)

3. You have an education, training and/or job skills that are portable (medicine, computers, etc) and you don't need to physically be in NY, Miami, Chicage or LA. If you don't have such an education or training, then expect to take a real significant pay cut.

Too many people read these surveys and articles and assume that one size fits all. It definitely does not. As much as I would like to move back to South Dakota, at this time it would mean that I would have to take a job for 1/3 of what I make and my wife would make 1/2 of her salary. (and lose 20 years of pension benefits as an outrageously high-salaried NJ teacher) On the upside I would have no mortgage whatsoever and own outright whatever home I had built. It is not a viable option for me at this time but I'm hoping to make the move to "suburban" Sioux Falls (Tea, Brandon or Harrisburg, SD) in the next 5-7 years.

[blackhillsdreams]

Originally Posted by msdmckee

As a former residnet of Custer, I have to vote for it's weather as superior over Rapid City...

It is generally 10 degrees warmer in the winter and 10 degrees cooler in the summer. It snows, but the roads clear off fairly well and you can get around with just all wheel drive.

I hope the hot summer temperatures last year are an abberation.......didn't seem to be any place you could go to get cool.

If you look at real estate sites, note how many homes have/or don't have central air conditioning. That will tell you how hot the weather can get on an overall average! Not many houses in Custer need central air. Nights are cool and there is generally a breeze during the day. Not much big wind (as in WY) but you can get occasional gusts.

Hey there, might I ask why you left Custer? My guess would be employment. Custer is my favorite place, I would live there in a minute. I just don't know what I would do for work. During one visit, I met a man in the local restauraunt there and he said he loved living there. He also said he had a bathtub refinishing business and it wasnt uncommon for him to have to drive all the way to Sioux Falls for a job. That reminded me of my short time in Montana. I had to drive all over the state to find work, which was one reason I took my old job back in Florida. With gas prices as they are, it doesn't seem reasonable to be able to do that anymore.

I LOVE Custer though.