MadisonMDS
At an airfield/1.4 mi away/1,709 ft/28 ft above here
temp, wind, gust, visibility, precip, pressure
Weather/South Dakota/Madison
Alert. A Freeze Watch is in force for Madison 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 60° after 50° today.
Now. Madison is 42° and overcast at 4 AM. With the wind it feels like 32°. The dew point is 41°, so the air feels dry and comfortable. Fresh breeze from the north-northwest at 23 mph, gusting to 37 mph.
Today and tonight. It warms to about 50° by 3 PM. Tonight falls to about 35° 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 Thursday, near 72°, and the coolest tomorrow, near 60°. The days ahead look dry. The windiest day is tomorrow, with wind to 20 mph. The first freeze could come tomorrow, a low of 32°.
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 0 minutes long, 3 minutes shorter than yesterday.
As of 4:00 AM in Madison, South Dakota.
Air quality
Index 26, good, led by fine particles. Read at 4 AM from its reporting area, Brookings (SD), 28 miles off.
Yesterday measured 32, good.
No smoke near the ground through Sun 1 AM.
Precipitation
0.11 in in the last 24 hours, 0.28 in over the last 3 days, to Fri 3 AM. Measured by radar and rain gauges, as water.
Visibility
Visibility stays 10 miles or more through Sun 1 AM.
F
Now, today, and the week
On the radar over Madison, South DakotaReflectivityStorm topsRain rateRain, last 24 hoursForecast temperatureForecast rain totalEvery picture
The 8 instruments nearest Madison, how far away each one is, how high it stands, and what kind of measurement it makes. The nearest is 1.0 miles away.
measured now6 instruments
MadisonMDS
At an airfield/1.4 mi away/1,709 ft/28 ft above here
temp, wind, gust, visibility, precip, pressure
Sd RWIS MadisonSD636
Beside a road/2.4 mi away/1,667 ft/14 ft below here
temp, pavement temp, wind, visibility, precip
Big Sioux River 10 SE BrookingsBRKS2
At a river or reservoir gauge/21.6 mi away/1,558 ft/123 ft below here
temp, wind, gust, humidity, pressure
Citizen station KF0AITKF0AIT
In a volunteer observer's own ground/26.3 mi away/1,670 ft/11 ft below here
temp, humidity, wind, precip, pressure
Eros Data CenterS2072
At a soil climate station/31.2 mi away/1,551 ft/130 ft below here
temp, humidity, soil temp, soil moisture
Sioux Falls 14 NNE04990
At a climate reference station/31.3 mi away/1,594 ft/87 ft below here
temp, humidity, wind, solar, precip
measured daily2 instruments
Madison 0.8 SSD-LK-7
In a volunteer observer's own ground/1.0 mi away/1,673 ft/8 ft below here
precip, snowfall, snow depth
MadisonMRFS2
At a cooperative observer's station/6.0 mi away/1,742 ft/61 ft above here
snowfall, snow depth, precip, high, low
Station report
The nearest airport reporting now, 1.4 mi from Madison, South Dakota. From its report of Oct 16, 2026, 4:15 AM local time: 3 of its 6 sheets.
Scattered at 2,100 ft, broken at 2,600 ft, overcast at 3,600 ft; the ceiling is 2,600 ft; visibility 10 mi or more.
41.0 F with a dew point of 41.0 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 25 mph, gusting 37 mph: force 6, a strong breeze on the Beaufort scale. The strongest gust today was 39 mph.
The full report of Madison, in 6 sheets, each beside the Field Book plates that explain it
0in
Snow on the ground
Measured at Madison (MRFS2), 6.0 miles from here, read 15 Oct, 09:00. measured daily
24 places, each with its own forecast and its own instruments.
The nearest places, each with its own forecast and the instruments nearest it.