SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — We had snow showers in the Black Hills of Monday, but as Meteorologist Adam Rutt explains, this isn’t too far out of the ordinary for October in KELOLAND.

Winter may not begin for another two months, but it can begin to show signs of making its move in the middle of fall.

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This year, however, it’s been largely absent outside of the highest elevations of the Black Hills…and even then it’s been infrequent at most. So, let’s see when winter typically makes its first appearance.

For this, we’re going to look at mean snowfall amounts for any given day. A trace of snow will not be included here, as we are looking for measurable snow of at least a tenth of an inch. We also aren’t looking for the earliest snow, as that ship sailed in September for many areas.

Back to the numbers at hand. The earliest instance of mean snowfall above a trace for Sioux Falls is October 9th, which has a mean snowfall of a tenth of an inch. For Aberdeen, it’s a little later at October 17th.

Pierre falls more in line with Sioux Falls, observing a mean snowfall of a tenth of an inch on October 10th. With its close proximity to the Black Hills, Rapid City has the earliest date of the four…October 4th, with a mean snowfall of three-tenths of an inch.

It’s worth noting that the vast majority of days in October for all four cities have mean values of zero, let alone a trace of snow. That’s going to change, as mean values reach at least a tenth of an inch of snow on a daily basis by mid-November and stay there through at least the start of April.