Will it ever stop raining?

Simplified: The Sioux Falls area has seen about four more inches of rain this year than normal, and that's before accounting for all the rain Thursday night (and yet to come this weekend). We asked National Weather Service Sioux Falls Meteorologist Todd Heitkamp a very important question: Will it ever stop raining?

So...will it?

Short answer, yes, obviously. (It'll turn to snow eventually, right? Just kidding. We'll see the sun again.)

But the reality is we've gotten a lot more rain than average this year. It's meant no drought in eastern South Dakota for the first time in about five years, Heitkamp said.

"Everyone's talking about how much we need the rain," Heitkamp said. "Well, we got the rain, and now we can't turn it off."

Is all this rain good?

Well, we needed rain, but Heitkamp said at this point it's too much of a good thing.

"Any time you get this amount of water in this amount of time, it's going to cause some issues," he added.

Farmers in the region – particularly in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa have a lot of crops underwater right now, and lakes in northwest Iowa are so full, they have a no wake zone across the entire lake.

And Thursday night's storm brought flooding throughout the area as well.

"We've had the rainfall – we don't need any more," Heitkamp said. "So anything on top of this is going to pour salt into an open wound."

Now for the good news:

Relief is on the way. Next week, temperatures will get back into the 80s, and everything should start to dry out, Heitkamp said.

In the meantime, stay safe.

• Don't drive through flooded areas.
• Make sure your sump pump is working and draining properly.
• Clear your downspouts.
• Make sure you have multiple ways to access weather alerts.