Updraft: April 11, 2008 Archive

Blizzard smacks Duluth

Posted at 7:21 AM on April 11, 2008 by Craig Edwards (3 Comments)

As expected, the Twin Cities was doused with a cold rain, mixed at times with snow, and a clap of thunder. Total water content of the combined liquid and ice tallied over three quarters of an inch in the past 18 hours. Had we been a couple degrees cooler, you'd be asking the neighbor kid to move the heavy wet snow off your driveway. I measured 0.88 inches of water in my rain gage this morning.

At daybreak, the observer in Little Falls reported a foot of snow, with 7.5 inches measured in Sauk Rapids.

To our north, Duluth/Superior region is getting clobbered with wind whipped snow. Look for blizzard and blizzard like conditions to prevail through the day. It is down right nasty from St. Cloud to Duluth, weather-wise that is!

National Weather Service Duluth

Enough cold air will swing south towards east central Minnesota on the back side of a strong low pressure system to change the rain to snow as the day progresses. Look for snow in the metro area some time around lunch or shortly after.
CE

Duluth blizzard rages on

Posted at 12:34 PM on April 11, 2008 by Paul Huttner

Areas near Duluth and the North Shore continue to get hammered today with bilzzard conditions. Here are some of the reports into the Huttner Weather Lab as of noon today.

-9" of snow in Duluth so far
-Wind gusts over 50mph, with a gust to 62mph
-Trees & power lines down under heavy snow & wind
-11,000 without power in Duluth
-Mail delivery cancelled
-MNDOT advising no travel

Many snow totals are now approcahing or exceeding a foot in a band from western Minneosta to Brainerd to near Duluth.

So far the highest I've seen is a whopping 13" in Brainerd.

Snowfall totals from Twin Cities NWS

Snowfall totals from Duluth NWS

Overall this storm has behaved about as expected. The most difficult aspect of the storm has been trying to get a handle on the precipitation type for the metro, and we knew that would be the case. We've had rain, snow, and thundersleet in the metro over the past 24 hours.

Want some really good news? The sun will return and 60's to near 70 are likely next week!

PH