|
Ground Blizzard in Western and Southern Minnesota: February 11, 2003
The first ground blizzard of the season hit western and southern Minnesota on Tuesday, February 11, 2003.
The event began as a powerful Alberta Clipper brought light snow over southern Minnesota.
There was a band of heavier snow Tuesday morning with 1 to 3 inches from La Crosse, Wisconsin to
Watertown, South Dakota. Then strong northwest winds moved in behind the main area of
snow as it moved off to the south east. The peak gust seen was 63mph around noon at
Windom. The snow rapidly moved out of the Twin Cities area by lunch time and the
skies quickly cleared. There was enough instability for some convective snow showers
to develop and these briefly reduced visibility with the blowing snow over the Twin
Cities through early afternoon.
Listed below is information from a National Weather Service Public information statements about the strong winds
and damage from the ground blizzard.
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
550 PM CST TUE FEB 11 2003
A STRONG COLD FRONT PUSHED THROUGH THE CENTRAL MINNESOTA TODAY...
CAUSING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ALONG THE MINNESOTA RIVER VALLEY IN SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA.
HERE ARE SOME MAXIMUM WIND OBSERVATIONS
FROM THE FIRST ORDER STATIONS IN THE AREA.
STATION LOCATION MAX WIND (MPH)
------- -------- --------------
FRM FAIRMONT 60
FBL FARIBAULT 51
ACQ WASECA 47
JYG SAINT JAMES 47
OWA OWATONNA 47
RWF RED WOOD FALLS 46
LJF LITCHFIELD 46
HCD HUTCHINSON 45
BBB BENSON 44
LVN LAKEVILLE 44
FCM FLYING CLOUD AP 44
GHW GLENWOOD 44
STC SAINT CLOUD 43
MOX MORRIS 43
AXN ALEXANDRIA 43
MKT MANKATO 43
MVE MONTEVIDEO 43
AQP APPLETON 41
ILL WILLMAR 41
DXX MADISON 40
AEL ALBERT LEA 40
MPX NWS CHANHASSEN 39
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED MND TIME
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD
134 PM CST TUE FEB 11 2003
TIME(CST) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1210 PM WORTHINGTON MN 56 MPH NON-TSTORM WIND
02/11/03 NOBLES *** 1 INJ *** STRONG WIND
GUSTS COLLAPSED PARTIALLY
CONSTRUCTED BUILDING.
mcwg@soils.umn.edu |
Return to Minnesota Climatology Working Group Main page