Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Wednesday’s North Shore blizzard dumped prolific snowfall totals between 1 and 2 feet along much of the North Shore. Hovland, Minn., a few miles east of Grand Marais, was the epicenter.

Hovland’s astounding two-day storm snowfall total of 38.6 inches is one of the top single storm snowfall totals on record for Minnesota, although it’s well short of the all-time single storm snowfall record of 46.5 inches that fell at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center near Finland, Minn., in January 1994.

It does look like the 24-hour snowfall total of 26.6 inches in Hovland Wednesday set a new February record for 24-hour snowfall in Minnesota. So this was definitely a tip-top-tier snowfall event.

The observer in Hovland is very reliable, historically, so the snow total is likely accurate.

I reached out Thursday to longtime MPR News climate expert Mark Seeley as well as Kenny Blumenfeld of the Minnesota State Climatology Office. Kenny and Mark point out that while the 38.6 inches in Hovland was huge for Minnesota, amazingly it doesn’t set any all-time state snowfall records. 

Like a lot of things weather, records can be complicated. Here’s part of my communication with Blumenfeld that explains how this storm fits well:

 points out that this storm is only the 10th time in Minnesota history that a location has recorded more than 25 inches of snow in a 24-hour period. 

Here’s a preview from his climate chat that you can hear on Morning Edition Fridays on MPR News:

So why do we see such big snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour along the North Shore? Highs winds blasting off Lake Superior inject additional moisture into storm systems. That’s called lake-enhanced snow. 

Those same winds slam into the ridges above the north sores and quickly rise up to 1,000 feet. That upslope orographic process cools and saturates the air even more quickly, wringing out even more snow.

Meteorologist Mandy Thalhuber, my MPR News colleague, wrote a 

The next Upper Midwest storm passes mostly south and east of Minnesota Friday — with one exception. It looks like this will clip far southeastern Minnesota and the North Shore once again with accumulating snow.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s FV3 model shows the storm’s snow bands favoring Iowa and Wisconsin. The forecast model loop below runs between 6 p.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday.

People traveling through Iowa should expect significant snow with this system.

The weekend looks quiet with winterlike temperatures. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

This week’s North Shore snow dump was a Minnesota record for any 24-hour period in February. But the storm fell short of the all-time state snowfall record from January 1994.

Hovland got 38.6 inches of snow but fell short of Minnesota's all-time record

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