South Dakota vs. North Dakota...??? (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: how much, house, living)

[CivilLibertarian]

What is the difference in climate if any? How much colder/harsher is North Dakota than South Dakota. Just curious if the difference in climate is negligible or if there is anything here to consider no matter how small the difference.

THANKS!!!

[MJ1986]

There really isn't much difference. ND is generally slightly cooler than SD, but not by much.
Aside from weather, the 2 states are different on both sides of the Missouri River. East of the river is more flat plains, more populated. West of the Missouri is more wide open spaces, less populated, more hills/scenery. Generally speaking of course!

[Jammie]

City Climate Comparisons

Climatology Comparison for Mitchell, SD - weather.com

It pretty much depends on which cities you're talking about. Places like Aberdeen would be nearly as cold as some No. Dak cities because it's close to the border. But if you're looking at Rapid City or Chamberlain, they'd be quite a bit warmer then northern No. Dak.Here are two climate comparison charts you can use.

[stockwiz]

eastern SD is significantly cooler then western SD in the winter. Although it doesn't get as cold at night as parts of eastern ND, the area around the SD/MN border including Watertown and Brookings is about the coldest part of the state in the winter and also takes longer to warm up in the spring. It can get cold in the other areas too but the cold is more persistent in these areas and not broken up as much by bouts of warmer weather mixed in.

[Chris19]

In the winter, Aberdeen and Watertown areas are some of the coldest parts of the states. I can recall seeing Aberdeen easily being 25 below zero in the dead of winter, before considering wind chill. I can recall Aberdeen a time or two (and this may have been back in the winter of 1996/1997) being 33 below zero (before factoring wind chill). Eastern ND is often even colder than northern SD.

When I lived in Vermillion, it was often 5 degrees warmer than Sioux Falls in the winter (and this has made a big difference). I can recall there being a heavy rain storm down there and Sioux Falls was dumped with snow. Usually Beresford or Canton areas were good dividing lines on who got socked and who lucked out.

[MJ1986]

I agree with Chris. I grew up near Aberdeen and the temps/wind chills got crazy cold during the Winter of 96/97. I remember watching KSFY and seeing that the wind chill at Aberdeen was -80 to -90. This was using the old wind chill formula.

During that winter, my family lived on a highway. A car with 3 younger people got stuck in a huge snowdrift about 3 miles from our house in one of the worst blizzards of that season. One of them walked the 3 miles and I don't know how he found our house. When he knocked on our door, he had really bad frost bite, and was poorly dressed. My dad drove back to their car to rescue them. I was so worried when he left. It was the worst snow storm I had ever seen.
We ended up keeping them there 2 nights. We were really "snowed in", but also reminded me about how terrible and treacherous winter can be!!

[DannyBanany]

Some differences between ND and SD is that SD has a higher population (800,000 compared to 650,000), SD has a more varied landscape with the Black Hills and the Badlands (even though ND has Badlands too), and SD has a slightly warmer climate than ND. I can't say much more because I've never been to ND and I don't really plan on going anytime.

BTW everyone, I'm going to Minneapolis in a couple weeks and I will for sure be stopping at Wall Drug for the first time. Then I can finally be called a true South Dakotan -after 19 years living here!

[MJ1986]

I've actually been to the "Badlands" of ND... It's beautiful... Not as good as ours though! Medora is a really cool western town... A big tourist spot in ND... I'd recommend going there.

Danny, Have fun at Wall Drug and on your trip!