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.

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/blizzard030211.htm
Last modified: February 12, 2003