Grand Forks and the Red River Valley could see more snow this week, adding to the fresh snow banks that piled up around the area as a Friday storm dumped as much as 11 inches in parts of North Dakota.
But this storm shouldn't be as bad, the National Weather Service said.
The stormy weather on Friday made for a gloomy return to winter for the region, but also broke some long-standing records in Grand Forks.
The weather service office near UND recorded 7.6 inches of snow -- shattering the previous April 15 snowfall record of 1 inch set in 1973. That translated to 0.91 inches of water equivalent, an amount that nearly doubled the previous daily precipitation record of 0.52 inches set in 1970.
Another storm is on its way to the Red River Valley, and weather service data manager Mark Ewens said much of the region should end up with an inch or less of new snow. Areas in the southern valley could get the worst of this storm and end up with 2 inches by the time the storm tapers off Wednesday.
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"It will be snow chances on and off for the next day and a half basically," he said. "But nothing nearly as heavy as last week is expected."
Ewens said the normal amount of snowfall in Grand Forks for April is about 3 inches, and the city had already recorded 8.1 inches by Sunday. But he said the term "normal" is "pretty misleading" in weather because it's an average based on decades of data, which means it's not uncommon for drastically changing amounts from year to year.
"April is an extremely variable month," he said. "Getting snow like we had last week is certainly not unheard of. Depressing, but not uncommon."
The weather service expects Grand Forks to remain colder than normal this week, with highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s. But Ewens said the temperature will start to rise during the weekend, and the city could reach the high-50s -- or even 60 -- by Sunday.
"It should be much, much nicer."
WEATHER FORECAST
Here's the National Weather Service's forecast for Grand Forks:
TODAY: A slight chance of snow before 1 p.m., then a chance of rain and snow. Cloudy, with a higher near 38. East wind between 7 and 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30 percent.
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TONIGHT: Rain and snow likely, becoming all snow after 1 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 27. North northwest wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60 percent. New precipitation amounts of less than one-tenth of an inch possible.
WEDNESDAY: A 20 percent chance of snow before 1 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. Northwest wind between 3 and 10 mph.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy, with a low around 32.
THURSDAY: A 20 percent chance of rain. Mostly sunny, with a high near 46.
Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to rjohnson@gfherald.com .
