Fast-moving system expected to bring snow to Grand Forks region

GRAND FORKS – More snow is coming to Grand Forks, weather forecasters are saying.

Less than two weeks after 11 inches of snow fell and just a few days after roads and highways were closed due to high winds and blowing snow, another system is moving into the region.

Grand Forks County and counties immediately west are under a winter weather advisory, but the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for counties south and east of Grand Forks.

In the warning area are the Minnesota counties of Polk, Norman, Clay, Lake of the Woods, Beltrami, Pennington, Red Lake and Clearwater and the North Dakota counties of Steele, Traill, Barnes, Ransom, Sargent and Richland.

In the advisory area are the Minnesota counties of Kittson, Roseau and Marshall and the North Dakota counties of Grand Forks, Griggs, Walsh, Nelson and Eddy, along with a number of counties farther south.

“This is a quick moving system,” WDAY meteorologist Lydia Blume said during an early morning broadcast Tuesday. “It’s not going to linger on top of us very long, but it comes with a punch.”

Upwards of 3 to 6 inches could fall on the immediate Grand Forks area, according to the National Weather Service. Elsewhere in the region, according to the NWS, Devils Lake and New Rockford could see 2 to 4 inches, Grafton 2 to 5 inches, Hallock 2 to 4 inches, Thief River Falls 3 to 6 inches and Roseau 3 to 5 inches.

Farther south and east, snowfall amounts could be a bit higher, including 4 to 7 inches in Fargo, 5 to 8 inches in Fosston and 4 to 7 inches in Bemidji.

According to an online post by WDAY, “it will start snowing in southeastern North Dakota (Tuesday) afternoon, move into the Fargo-Moorhead metro after 4 p.m., Grand Forks after 5 p.m., and into northern Minnesota this evening. Snow will fall all night long for most of us.”

In her morning broadcast, Blume predicts snowfall likely will end by Wednesday morning, but it will be followed by blowing and drifting.

“I don’t have much for snowfall (Wednesday), but I do have a wind out of the northwest, 15 to 25 (mph), and gusting up near 30 – not blizzard force, but enough to create some of that blowing and drifting, especially out in open country,” Blume said.

High temperatures Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Grand Forks likely will be in the mid-20s, followed by highs around 30 on Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.