MITCHELL, S.D. --Southeast South Dakota residents felt the impact of the first significant snowfall of the season on Friday.
Many county law enforcement officials throughout the region reported a high number of vehicles sliding off roads and into ditches, but no major accidents were reported.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol, based out of Sioux Falls, responded to 160 weather-related incidents as of 3:30 p.m. Friday, according to Tony Mangan, public information officer for the Department of Public Safety. Mangan said 92 of those calls were in the Sioux Falls area, 24 near Vermillion, 19 near Brookings, 13 in or around Mitchell and 12 near Chamberlain.
The Mitchell Police Division said it responded to more than 14 crashes on Friday.
Officials in Miner County said the area received about a half inch of snow, significantly less than reports of about 6 inches in Mitchell, according to the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls.
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Tyndall and Tripp reported the most snow in the area, with 11 inches each. Other areas with a larger amount of snowfall were Harrisburg with 17 inches and Marion with 16. Armour and Corsica checked in with 8 and 7 inches, respectively.
The snow was not light, fluffy or "picturesque," but mostly heavy and wet, said Richard Otto, lead forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Weather Prediction Center. He said the snowfall is "right on track" for the season.
According to the National Weather Service, conditions were more severe to the east of Mitchell, crushing the snowfall record for Nov. 20 at the Sioux Falls Airport, with more than 7 inches recorded, with the prior record being 3.8 inches set in 1975.
The storm system is moving east and will last through tonight, when it goes through Michigan, Otto said.
But area residents expected to see the snow taper off by late Friday evening, and the weekend forecast for Mitchell calls for highs in the low to mid-30s.
