The historic blizzard that hit much of western South Dakota early last October was extreme, but is probably not likely to be repeated in the near future. A report by the American Meteorological Society includes that blizzard as one of the extreme weather events of 2013.
South Dakota State Climatologist Dennis Todey says the storm was an isolated event.

The storm dropped over fifty five inches of snow, and killed over forty thousand head of livestock.

Todey says it is hard to place a storm like that in any type of weather trend.

Todey says the blizzard fell in a time period that is seeing some changes in normal precipitation patterns.

Todey says it will always be difficult to predict these types of events for more than a few days out.