Sd RWIS Dell RapidsSD520
Beside a road/9.2 mi away/1,591 ft/21 ft below here
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
Weather/South Dakota/Chester
Alert. A Freeze Watch is in force for Chester until 8 AM tomorrow. Read the alert in full, and see what it means in the Field Book. Tomorrow is 10 degrees warmer: a high of 59° after 49° today.
Now. Chester is 42° and mostly cloudy at 3 AM. With the wind it feels like 33°. The dew point is 39°, so the air feels dry and comfortable. Fresh breeze from the north-northwest at 22 mph, gusting to 34 mph.
Today and tonight. It warms to about 48° by 3 PM. Tonight falls to about 33° by 12 AM, under a mostly clear sky. Frost can form on the ground in sheltered spots. No rain is expected for the rest of the day.
The week. The warmest day ahead is Wednesday, near 72°, and the coolest tomorrow, near 59°. The days ahead look dry. The windiest day is tomorrow, with wind to 21 mph. The first freeze could come tomorrow, a low of 31°.
The sky tonight. The sun sets at 6:43 PM. The Moon is a waxing crescent, 33% lit, and sets at 10:28 PM. The next full Moon is Sunday, Oct 25. After dark, look for Saturn, bright in the east-southeast. A planet shines with a steady light where the stars around it twinkle. The Orionids meteor shower is active, peaking around Oct 21: at its peak, up to about 20 meteors an hour can be seen from a dark site. The sky is forecast to stay clear: a good night to look up. The day is 11 hours 1 minutes long, 3 minutes shorter than yesterday.
As of 3:00 AM in Chester, South Dakota.
Air quality
Index 19, good, led by ozone. Read at 2 AM from its reporting area, Sioux Falls (SD), 27 miles off.
Yesterday measured 32, good.
No smoke near the ground through Sat 7 PM.
Precipitation
0.36 in in the last 24 hours, 0.45 in over the last 3 days, to Fri 1 AM. Measured by radar and rain gauges, as water.
Visibility
Visibility stays 7 miles or more through Sat 7 PM, lowest 8 miles Fri 5 AM.
F
Now, today, and the week
On the radar over Chester, South DakotaReflectivityStorm topsRain rateRain, last 24 hoursForecast temperatureForecast rain totalEvery picture
The 8 instruments nearest Chester, how far away each one is, how high it stands, and what kind of measurement it makes. The nearest is 4.7 miles away.
measured now6 instruments
Sd RWIS Dell RapidsSD520
Beside a road/9.2 mi away/1,591 ft/21 ft below here
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
MadisonMDS
At an airfield/11.3 mi away/1,709 ft/97 ft above here
temp, wind, gust, visibility, precip, pressure
Sioux Falls 14NESUFS2
At a river or reservoir gauge/19.0 mi away/1,594 ft/18 ft below here
temp, wind, gust, humidity, pressure
Sioux Falls 14 NNE04990
At a climate reference station/19.3 mi away/1,594 ft/18 ft below here
temp, humidity, wind, solar, precip
Eros Data CenterS2072
At a soil climate station/19.3 mi away/1,551 ft/61 ft below here
temp, humidity, soil temp, soil moisture
Citizen station DW0687DW0687
In a volunteer observer's own ground/26.0 mi away/1,500 ft/112 ft below here
temp, humidity, wind, precip, pressure
measured daily2 instruments
Wentworth 4.7 SSWSD-LK-12
In a volunteer observer's own ground/4.7 mi away/1,625 ft/13 ft above here
precip, snowfall, snow depth
ColtonCOLS2
At a cooperative observer's station/7.9 mi away/1,631 ft/19 ft above here
snowfall, snow depth, precip, high, low
Station report
The nearest airport reporting now, 11.3 mi from Chester, South Dakota. From its report of Oct 16, 2026, 2:55 AM local time: 3 of its 6 sheets.
Scattered at 2,100 ft, broken at 2,500 ft, overcast at 3,100 ft; the ceiling is 2,500 ft; visibility 10 mi or more.
42.8 F with a dew point of 42.8 F, 100 per cent relative humidity. The air is saturated at the ground; the lowest cloud reported is at 2,100 ft.
From the north northwest (340 degrees) at 23 mph, gusting 31 mph: force 5, a fresh breeze on the Beaufort scale. The strongest gust today was 31 mph.
The full report of Madison, in 6 sheets, each beside the Field Book plates that explain it
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Snow on the ground
24 places, each with its own forecast and its own instruments.
The nearest places, each with its own forecast and the instruments nearest it.