A record-setting four-day fall snowstorm moved out of North Dakota on Sunday, leaving behind historic amounts of snow in some areas.
Bismarck got 17.1 inches of snow and set daily records for snowfall on Thursday, Friday and Saturday – on Friday breaking a record that had stood more than a century.
The 11.6 inches that fell between 7 a.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday set a Bismarck record for one-day, 24-hour total snowfall in October.
To set so many records in such a short period of time is “pretty unusual,” weather service meteorologist Bill Abeling said.
To the northeast, the storm went beyond unusual to extreme, with snowfall totals reaching as high as 30 inches in Harvey, a city of about 1,700 people. In those areas, “if you wanted to label it historic, I wouldn’t argue with you,” Abeling said.
All of the main streets in Harvey had been cleared by late Saturday, but it wasn’t an easy task, according to City Councilman Milo Baltrusch.
“There was a snowbank by the grade school, it must have been 10, 12 feet high,” he said.
The storm came in two waves – the initial system moving out of the Pacific and the second out of the Rockies. It shut down highways including Interstate 94 between Bismarck and Fargo, led to dozens of accidents in the Bismarck-Mandan area and caused numerous flight delays and cancellations.
All highways had been reopened by Sunday, and no winter weather warnings or advisories remained in effect. All flights at the Bismarck airport were on time. The PowerOutage.us tracking site listed only 40 people without power statewide.
“The snow is done, the sun is shining, everybody is digging out,” Baltrusch said.
Another system could bring freezing rain or a rain-snow mix on Monday, but forecasters don’t expect much additional precipitation, according to Abeling.
“This particular system is going to be faster and weaker than this big storm that hit us,” he said.
After that, a warm-up is in store. High temperatures late in the week could reach into the 40s in central North Dakota and into the 60s in the west.
“That will start the melt,” Abeling said.
It also will bring concerns about flooding, given the saturated ground from an overly wet September.
“Hopefully the temperatures in the 40s and 30s will result in a slow-enough melt that there won’t be any flooding,” Abeling said.
Farmers Devastated After North Dakota Blizzard
Whether farmers in snowy areas are able to get back into the field to harvest the hundreds of thousands of acres of grain and row crops, sugar beets and potatoes remains to be seen. Northwest of Grand Forks, 2 feet of snow fell near Langdon, where earlier this week farmers were working to combine canola before the snowstorm.
“I think this is going to shut harvest down completely,” said Randy Mehloff, Langdon Research and Extension Center director. “There are 8-feet snow drifts everywhere we look. If I were to take a guess, I’d say everything north of Highway 2 and 200 and everything east of Minot is shot.”
About 25% of the canola in Cavalier County and most of the soybeans are unharvested, Mehloff said.
“It doesn’t look like anything will be picked up again,” he said. “I think right now, the farmers are totally devastated. They’re going to have to look at their bottom lines and activate their insurance programs and see how they come out of this.”
This snow storm has been just insane and is almost unprecedented in North Dakota, as shown by the more-than-100-year-old snowfall records that have been broken this weekend in some ND cities.
And it seems that farmers have a really hard time in front of them, with some fields covered in snow hindering the already poor harvest 2019. Such anomalous weather phenomena are becoming the new normal, and we are all going to suffer. Be ready and get prepared! [Aberdeen News, Bismark Tribune]
Does it really matter that the harvest may be a bust? I mean the man who denies climate change also made sure that any North Dakota harvest would be unsaleable because of return tariffs in response to American tariffs on other nations’ goods. too bad, so sad but you voted him in and now you will bear the reward for your foolishness.
weather like in the 1940s & 50s, before weather modification- tho this could be modified too
Why do all the Bible thumping assholes come out in droves to spew their nonsense whenever something unusual happens with the weather, the economy or even if a volcano blows its top?
Hello Ellen! Hummm… don’t know that I’ve ever thumped my Bible, but I DO read it. Actually it has a lot to say about the perilous times we’re now living in. If you’re interested in current events and where all this is heading, you just might find a Bible you can thump (er, read) for yourself. You could then speak with some wisdom and knowledge of what’s going on in the world and not out of ignorance. The choice is yours.
Well said
You can read ANYTHING into the Bible. It’s a collection of Gnostic books and the meaning of the phrases depends on the mind that reads them. There are a 1000 books that, should you choose, you can pull phrases from that describe what is going on today, yesterday, and tomorrow. I am very much aware of what the Bible says, and I, too, get tired of people quoted from it every time something unusual happens, or just something that happens often but not in the last 40 years. My mother used to say “it has to be end times, it can’t get worse.” I always responded, it might be, but we haven’t bottomed out yet, and it CAN get worse.
Great question. I’ve wondered that myself! Most of Scripture is taken from earlier works; read Velikovsky and Dr Zechariah Sitchin for a better understanding of our history, and the substitution of Belief for Truth….
not even close to being true, Dan.
yet you you’re an asshole and you don’t thump the Bible,.
Hi ashley, I can see you propagate atheistic ideas as it is only you people who belittle others who do not think like you. Deep in your heart you really wish to have what we have, joy unspeakable and full of glory and see only nice things in people. You see we do not need to belittle you but your puppet master, the master of all evil we can belittle as he is nothing but evil and AS a roaring lion but is actually toothless.
You have a very blessed day
Hello Houston, from Fitzgerald, Tasmania.
Who holds the idea of ugly.? Allow the mystery and be aware of the idea
That is very beautiful, mysterious & poetic. Can you elaborate?
Stevie Wonder??
When angel anti-Christ Apollyon rises from the bottomless pit day 794 of Daniel’s 70 week, the 5th trumpet.
Habakkuk 3:16, 17 King James Version (KJV)
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Imaginary deities controlling events? Yeah, highly likely.
Nothing imaginary about the environment geoengineering crew, visible hidden hands creating nucleated snow, Agenda 21 and 2030, wadda you know, the farmers being driven off the land unto the Smart 24/7 Surveillance Cities, even Scamaposer South Africa way has his New Dawn Red Dawn payday, The Tribe having their pay and play all sides parlay!
https: // www. geoengineeringwatch. org/
Habakkuk 3:17 King James Version (KJV)
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: