Cold Winter Ahead After Strong Growing Season

By Scout Nelson

South Dakota has already experienced cold weather, and more cold days are expected ahead. An atmospheric scientist says current weather patterns point to a colder winter across the region. This outlook follows a growing season that brought strong crop results for many South Dakota farmers.

Except for areas that received too much rain, many producers benefited from wetter-than-normal conditions. The season resulted in some of the best crop yields in recent years. However, the wet weather also required changes in crop protection plans.

“This was one of those years where if you hit your crop twice with fungicide, you were rolling it. I mean, it was great. You were having a great year,” said Snodgrass, an atmospheric scientist with Nutrien Ag Solutions. “That's usually not what we're talking about. We should be talking about ‘how close is drought, how hot is it going to get? How many stretches of super-hot nights are we going to deal with?’ And 2025 brought an entirely different thing.”

Snodgrass shared his insights at the 2025 South Dakota AgOutlook conference in Sioux Falls. He noted that other Midwest states did not see the same success as eastern South Dakota. Dry conditions in places like Illinois are now causing concerns beyond farming, especially river transportation.

“We're very dry in Illinois in places, and as we get into winter, snow doesn't usually cure a drought. You have to wait till your spring rains come along,” he told the South Dakota Soybean Network. “So, we're quite concerned about the fact that, well, the Mississippi River, after the Missouri and the Ohio come into it, is still pretty low.”

Snodgrass explained that the cold weather already reaching South Dakota signals what may continue through winter.

“We're going to have plenty of access to cold air,” he said. “A couple of things that are going on; we have a La Niña… And that's us over the Midwest.”

He added that a weak and disrupted polar vortex is a major factor this winter. “If it's loose, displaced, if it's out of whack, cold air can come out somewhere,” Snodgrass explained. “And I think we're going to have plenty of access to that cold air because of those factors going into this winter.”

Photo Credit: pexels-adam-sondel