The short grass High Plains lay west from about the 100th Meridian just east of the course of the Missouri River to the foothills. Some might also include parts of Wyoming and Montana, Nebraska and Kansas. Within the Plains are a number of unique geological and environmental zones such as the Sand Hills of Nebraska , the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, and the South Dakota Badlands . A Virtual Textbook by Alan A. Lew. The Great Plains has some of the most variable and extreme climate in North America.
Winters are cold, with frequent snowy blizzards, while summers bring hot, dry winds.
As with the Midwest, temperature extremes increases northward. Texas towns typically experience a 50 degrees F difference between average January and July temperatures. F. Every year hail storms on the Great Plains destroy millions of dollars of crops. Their occurrence is most frequent in the westernmost portion of the Great Plains. Blizzards are caused by thrusts of extremely cold polar air moving across the Great Plains.