Winter Storm Summary for December 5-7, 2016

Overview

A major winter storm system struck the Northern Plains beginning during the late afternoon of Monday, December 5th and continuing through midweek. Heavy snow moved into portions of northeastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota during the late afternoon and early evening and continued through Monday night. The snow decreased in intensity during the day on Tuesday but winds increased significantly. This created blizzard conditions for much of the area Tuesday and into Tuesday night. Even with southeastern North Dakota and west central Minnesota receiving less snow than locations further north, the winds brought white-out conditions and travel difficulties to large portions of the region. Winds decreased for a while Wednesday morning but conditions deteriorated again by the afternoon across the Devils Lake Basin.

Snow
Winds
Radar

Snow

...Storm Totals for Eastern North Dakota and Northwest Minnesota...

The following are three day storm totals for the December 5-7, 2016
winter storm event. The following reports are from NWS Cooperative
observers and CoCoRaHS observers.

North Dakota...                                              Snowfall
  Location (County):                                         (inches)
  Grand Forks 4 W (Grand Forks)................................. 16.5
  Grand Forks (Grand Forks)..................................... 16.4
  Grand Forks 5 SSW (Grand Forks)............................... 15.0
  Michigan (Nelson)............................................. 15.0
  Hope 5 WNW (Steele)........................................... 13.9
  Lankin 6 E (Walsh)............................................ 12.5
  Esmond 9 NNW (Benson)......................................... 10.4
  Pembina (Pembina).............................................  9.7
  Cavalier 8 WNW (Pembina)......................................  9.6
  Mayville (Traill).............................................  9.3
  Starkweather 4 NE (Ramsey)....................................  9.0
  Havana (Sargent)..............................................  2.5
  West Fargo 4 SSE (Cass).......................................  2.5
  Fargo 3 S (Cass)..............................................  2.3
  Fargo 4 NNE (Cass)............................................  2.1
  Lidgerwood (Richland).........................................  2.0
  Abercrombie (Richland)........................................  1.8
  Kindred (Cass)................................................  1.1

Minnesota...                                                 Snowfall
  Location (County):                                         (inches)
  Lancaster (Kittson)........................................... 13.9
  Warren 7 NW (Marshall)........................................ 11.5
  Lake Park 6 S (Becker)........................................ 11.2
  Karlstad (Kittson)............................................ 11.1
  Turtle River 4 E (Beltrami)...................................  8.4
  Menahga 2 WSW (Wadena)........................................  6.7
  Detroit Lakes 6 N (Becker)....................................  6.0
  Rothsay (Wilkin)..............................................  6.0
  Sebeka (Wadena)...............................................  6.0
  Goodridge (Pennington)........................................  5.9
  Pelican Rapids 6 NNW (Otter Tail).............................  5.7
  Twin Valley (Norman)..........................................  4.8
  Battle Lake 2 S (Otter Tail)..................................  4.0
  Sabin (Clay)..................................................  3.2
  Ottertail (Otter Tail)........................................  3.0

Winds:

Peak winds across the area as of Tuesday evening:

Radar:

Radar imagery from 6:00 p.m. Monday Evening (December 5) through 6:00 a.m. Tuesday Morning (December 6)

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