While snow is fairly sparse across southern Minnesota this winter, quite the opposite is happening over northeast parts of the state. The deepest snow depth reported so far over northeast Minnesota this winter is at Wolf Ridge in Lake County with 57 inches reported on January 22, 2005. While this is the deepest snow depth that Wolf Ridge has measured since records began in 1993, it falls short of the state record by eighteen inches. The state record deepest snow depth is 75 inches at the old Pigeon River Bridge crossing of Highway 61 into Canada back on March 28, 1950.

Duluth is seeing a very snowy winter as well. Duluth now has its second snowiest January on record. Below is a statement from the Duluth National Weather Service about the local snow records.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN...CORRECTION FOR DATE
1130 AM CST TUE JAN 25 2005 
...DULUTH NEARING JANUARY RECORD SNOWFALL...
SNOWFALL OVERNIGHT OF 0.5 INCHES HAS BROUGHT THE JANUARY SNOWFALL
TOTAL TO 43.5 INCHES. THIS TOTAL STANDS AS THE 2ND SNOWIEST JANUARY
OF ALL-TIME AT DULUTH. WE ARE NOW ONLY 3.3 INCHES BELOW THE ALL-TIME
SNOWFALL MARK OF 46.8 INCHES THAT WAS SET IN JANUARY OF 1969.
THIS IS THE SECOND JANUARY IN A ROW THAT WE HAVE HAD RECORD SNOWFALL
AMOUNTS. JANUARY'S 2004 TOTAL...WAS 42.3 INCHES OF SNOW FOR THE MONTH...
WHICH WAS THE 2ND HIGHEST JANUARY TOTAL SNOWFALL ON RECORD. 

WE ARE ALSO APPROACHING THE ALL-TIME TOP TEN SNOWIEST WINTER MONTHS OF 
DECEMBER...JANUARY AND FEBRUARY WITH 60.8 INCHES SO FAR. THIS IS ONLY 2.5 
INCHES BELOW THE 63.3 INCH TOTAL FOR THE WINTER MONTHS OF 1934-1935 FOR 
10TH PLACE. LAST YEARS 2003-2004 WINTER MONTHS TOTAL OF 74.1 INCHES...WOUND 
UP AS THE 5TH SNOWIEST WINTER MONTHS TOTAL OF ALL-TIME. THE CHANCES FOR 
BREAKING THE ALL-TIME SNOWIEST JANUARY APPEAR DOUBTFUL AT THIS TIME...AS 
ONLY WEAK DISTURBANCES ARE EXPECTED...WITH
LITTLE SNOWFALL THROUGH THE END OF THE MONTH. THE ODDS OF GETTING INTO THE 
TOP TEN SNOWIEST WINTER MONTHS DOES LOOK BETTER...AS WE ONLY
NEED 2.5 INCHES OF SNOWFALL...AND WE HAVE THE ENTIRE MONTH OF
FEBRUARY TO GO. THE NORMAL SNOWFALL FOR FEBRUARY IS 11.4 INCHES.

THE LONG RANGE OUTLOOK FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY DOES INDICATE
A WARMER AND SLIGHTLY DRIER PATTERN FOR THE NORTHLAND.
ALL IN ALL IT HAS BEEN AN INTERESTING WINTER SO FAR AND WE HAVE
A WAYS TO GO YET.

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/deepsnow050125.htm
Last modified: January 25, 2005