Rounding Up the Snow from the ND Blizzard of April 2022
Blizzard conditions finally came to an end in the Northern Plains on Thursday, where Spring has felt a lot more like the heart of winter the last few days. Snowfall totals have been insanely high through Montana and North Dakota (above) with the energy now slowly weakening.
WOW! You may want to check in on your North Dakota friends … these #snow drifts are over 5 FEET high in some locations!#Blizzard conditions are coming to an end today, thankfully, but we don't expect this to melt anytime soon with the cold sticking around! #NDwx pic.twitter.com/RBm1ZsoxzG
— WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) April 14, 2022
At the storms peak, we had nearly the entire state of North Dakota under blizzard warnings. Gusts we felt up to 55 mph.
The storm got its start in Montana, where some areas saw nearly four FEET of snow. We anticipate some higher snowfall amounts for these areas, but in January, not in the heart of April!
As a result we saw major and extreme travel impacts for the northern Plains. Thankfully we didn’t hear of any major accidents, as people heeded the winter warnings! North Dakota DOT also closed many major interstates during the storm.
‼️I-94 will remain closed for the rest of the day.‼️
Listen, no one thinks it's going to be them getting stuck and causing valuable snow removal resources to be pulled away. Stay where you are. The less vehicles we're digging out, the faster we can open the roads. Let's do this! pic.twitter.com/sb4La3soeu— NDDOT (@NorthDakotaDOT) April 14, 2022
Main roads will be addressed first – this includes I-94, US 2, 85, 83, and 52. There are currently over 7,000 lane miles closed and being worked on.
— NDDOT (@NorthDakotaDOT) April 14, 2022
Minot, North Dakota picked up on 3 FEET of snow with this system. This now makes April 2022 the snowiest April on record for the city!
The other factor of this system is the wind away from where the snow is. Extreme fire danger concerns are in play for South Dakota where we have seen wind gusts over 60 mph the last few days.
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