Weather officials in South Dakota are warning of a very powerful storm to cover most of the state later in the weekend. Phil Schumacher with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls says much of the state is in a Winter Storm Watch, with some East River counties in a Blizzard Watch for late Saturday and Sunday.
Schumacher says, "It is going to be a very messy and perhaps dangerous travel period through the weekend across the state. We’re expecting snow to develop Saturday afternoon, actually, across the western portions of South Dakota. Snow is gonna spread to the east Saturday night into Sunday. Across the southeast part of the state, we may start out as rain here, but that will gradually change to snow on Sunday.
"Snow will be heavy at times, especially across central South Dakota and eastern South Dakota. And in addition to that, we could see winds of 25 to 40 miles an hour, possibly even gusting to 50 miles an hour, Sunday afternoon into Sunday night."
Schumacher says six to 12 inches of snow could fall in the region, with treacherous travel conditions in open areas Sunday.