For the second time in less than a week, another major snowstorm hit southern Minnesota. A low pressure center was situated over northeast Kansas in the wee hours of the morning on March 16th. This low then tracked to the east to central Illinois by late afternoon. Light snow began falling across far western Minnesota and over the central parts of the Twin Cities in the evening hours of the 15th. The snow ended around noon on the 16th across the Twin Cities and slowly tapered off across southern Minnesota during the late afternoon.

During the snowstorm a Fed Ex cargo plane skidded off a runway at the Twin Cities International Airport. However, unlike the storm earlier in the week that had over 100 Metro Transit buses stuck, only about a dozen were affected on the 16th.

The storm from March 12-13 had roughly twice the water content as the storm from March 15-16. The reason for the fluffier and drier snow for the latter storm was that much of the moisture from this storm originated from the Pacific. The storm from earlier this week was able to tap some gulf moisture. At one observer's site in Maplewood 7.1 inches of fluff from this most recent storm melted down to .41 (17 to 1) compared to 10.4 inches of snow melting down to 1.21 (9 to 1) from the earlier storm.

One of the higher totals was 8.6 inches at the Twin Cities International Airport. It is interesting to note that the 12 inch snow depth reported at 6am March 16, 2006 at the Twin Cities International Airport hasn't happened at a official snow measuring site for the Twin Cities in two years. The last time was February 10, 2004 with a foot of snow on the ground at Chanhassen.

Listed below are National Weather Service Statements about this winter storm.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
145 PM CST THU MAR 16 2006

...SNOW REPORTS ACROSS SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL
WISCONSIN...

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF RECENT SNOWFALL REPORTS TAKEN BY OFFICIAL 
SNOWFALL OBSERVERS THROUGH 145 PM CST TODAY.


..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0850 AM     SNOW             SPRING VALLEY           44.85N 92.24W 
03/16/2006  M6.5 INCH        PIERCE             WI   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0850 AM     SNOW             GOLDEN VALLEY           44.99N 93.36W 
03/16/2006  M6.0 INCH        HENNEPIN           MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0855 AM     SNOW             PRIOR LAKE              44.73N 93.43W 
03/16/2006  M5.0 INCH        SCOTT              MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0900 AM     SNOW             MONTEVIDEO              44.95N 95.72W 
03/16/2006  M1.5 INCH        CHIPPEWA           MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0900 AM     SNOW             BUFFALO                 45.18N 93.87W 
03/16/2006  M6.0 INCH        WRIGHT             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0900 AM     SNOW             MAPLEWOOD               44.99N 93.02W 
03/16/2006  M7.5 INCH        RAMSEY             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0905 AM     SNOW             NEW HOPE                45.04N 93.39W 
03/16/2006  M6.2 INCH        HENNEPIN           MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0910 AM     SNOW             BROWNTON                44.73N 94.35W 
03/16/2006  M4.0 INCH        MCLEOD             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0940 AM     SNOW             ANDOVER                 45.26N 93.33W 
03/16/2006  M3.8 INCH        ANOKA              MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0953 AM     SNOW             ST PAUL                 44.95N 93.10W 
03/16/2006  M5.5 INCH        RAMSEY             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

            OBSERVATION ON EAST SIDE OF TOWN

1000 AM     SNOW             NORTH ST PAUL           45.01N 93.00W 
03/16/2006  M6.8 INCH        RAMSEY             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1000 AM     SNOW             FRIDLEY                 45.08N 93.26W 
03/16/2006  M6.5 INCH        ANOKA              MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1000 AM     SNOW             WATERTOWN               44.96N 93.85W 
03/16/2006  M5.1 INCH        CARVER             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1000 AM     SNOW             MONTGOMERY              44.44N 93.58W 
03/16/2006  M4.7 INCH        LE SUEUR           MN   CO-OP OBSERVER  

1100 AM     SNOW             JANESVILLE              44.12N 93.71W 
03/16/2006  E4.5 INCH        WASECA             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1100 AM     SNOW             FARIBAULT               44.30N 93.27W 
03/16/2006  E3.5 INCH        RICE               MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1110 AM     SNOW             LAKEVILLE               44.68N 93.24W 
03/16/2006  M4.5 INCH        DAKOTA             MN   NWS EMPLOYEE    

1141 AM     SNOW             CHANHASSEN              44.86N 93.56W 
03/16/2006  M6.8 INCH        CARVER             MN   NWS EMPLOYEE    

1200 PM     SNOW             MORGAN                  44.42N 94.92W 
03/16/2006  M2.2 INCH        REDWOOD            MN   CO-OP OBSERVER  

1200 PM     SNOW             MINNEAPOLIS             44.96N 93.27W 
03/16/2006  M8.6 INCH        HENNEPIN           MN   OFFICIAL NWS OBS

            MSP AIRPORT TOTAL

1200 PM     SNOW             STILLWATER              45.06N 92.82W 
03/16/2006  M7.0 INCH        WASHINGTON         MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1200 PM     SNOW             ST CLOUD                45.55N 94.17W 
03/16/2006  M1.9 INCH        STEARNS            MN   OFFICIAL NWS OBS

            ST. CLOUD AIRPORT TOTAL

1200 PM     SNOW             EAU CLAIRE              44.82N 91.49W 
03/16/2006  M5.2 INCH        EAU CLAIRE         WI   TRAINED SPOTTER 

1251 PM     SNOW             WACONIA                 44.85N 93.79W 
03/16/2006  M5.0 INCH        CARVER             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0100 PM     SNOW             ALBERT LEA              43.66N 93.37W 
03/16/2006  M3.0 INCH        FREEBORN           MN   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0114 PM     SNOW             INVER GROVE HEIGHTS     44.83N 93.06W 
03/16/2006  M6.2 INCH        DAKOTA             MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0118 PM     SNOW             MANKATO                 44.17N 93.99W 
03/16/2006  E6.0 INCH        BLUE EARTH         MN   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0120 PM     SNOW             OWATONNA                44.09N 93.22W 
03/16/2006  M4.0 INCH        STEELE             MN   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0125 PM     SNOW             BLUE EARTH              43.64N 94.10W 
03/16/2006  E5.0 INCH        FARIBAULT          MN   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0130 PM     SNOW             DURAND                  44.63N 91.96W 
03/16/2006  E4.0 INCH        PEPIN              WI   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0131 PM     SNOW             RED WING                44.58N 92.60W 
03/16/2006  M6.0 INCH        GOODHUE            MN   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/snow060315_16.htm
Last modified: March 16, 2006