Steve Bartlette snowblows a side walk on Demers Ave. in East Grand Forks Satudeay afttrnoon after Blizzard Alvin moved through the area. Herald photo by John Stennes.
Blizzard Alvin may have been an unwanted (and nonreturnable) Christmas gift to the region, but it also was a present that likely will go down in history in more than one way. The storm has already dumped its heaviest snowfall on the region, and should clear out by Sunday morning.
Grand Forks Herald | Dec 26, 2009
By: Ryan Johnson
Blizzard Alvin may have been an unwanted (and nonreturnable) Christmas gift to the region, but it also was a present that likely will go down in history in more than one way.
The 25.1 inches of snowfall recorded in Grand Forks from Wednesday night until about 6 p.m. Saturday just might be enough to mark Blizzard Alvin as a truly record-breaking storm. Data manager Mark Ewens said National Weather Service employees haven’t yet been able to find a single storm that brought more snow to the city.
There are a couple of blizzards that stand out in local memory that seem like they could be competitors. A storm that struck the city March 2-5, 1966, brought about 17 inches of snow — plenty of snow, for sure, but no Alvin.
Ewens said the ’66 blizzard had much stronger winds, causing larger drifts that made it seem worse than it actually was in terms of snowfall. “That was basically an inland hurricane,” he said.
A blizzard 20 years ago brought heavy snowfall — about 21 inches between Jan. 6 and 8, 1989. But Alvin’s three-day snowfall total, from Thursday to Saturday, still beat that out with 23.5 inches.
This record is still preliminary and will need to be verified in the coming months. But, for now, Grand Forks residents can honestly say they’ve experienced the heaviest single-storm snowfall in city weather records.
More records
Grand Forks set a new Dec. 25 snowfall record, with 15.7 inches recorded at the weather service office. That’s a lot of snow, and it’s also more than five times the previous 1968 record of 3.0 inches for the date.
The city also had a record amount of “liquid precipitation,” the amount of water in the snow, seeing 0.5 inches of precipitation and nearly doubling the 1949 record of 0.29 inches.
John Hoppes, weather service meteorologist, said it’s been an unusually heavy storm for this time of year. “From what I heard, some of the old-timers around here don’t even remember a big storm happening like this around Christmas time,” he said.
Fargo received much wetter snow on Christmas, getting 0.76 inches of liquid precipitation and tripling the 1916 record of 0.21 inches. “Their shovelfuls probably weighed a little more than ours do,” Hoppes said. “Ours are probably heavy enough.”
Fargo had much less snow than Grand Forks, recording a comparatively light snowfall total of 8.1 inches on the date. But it was still enough to shatter the 1912 record of 3.6 inches.
Unusual weather
Besides breaking records, Ewens said Blizzard Alvin was pretty unusual in terms of weather patterns. During a winter with a predominant El Nino system, like this year, mild temperatures and less than average snowfall is the norm.
That means there usually aren’t major snowstorms like this, he said. But the system was also to thank for the really strange part of the blizzard.
“Typically, when we get these really massive snowstorms or blizzards, you wake up the next morning and it’s 25 or 30 below zero,” he said. “This morning, it was in the mid-20s.”
Ewens said the sheer size of this storm system, which was in rotation over nearly the entire continental U.S., caused these above-average temperatures during a blizzard.
“The storm was so large that it actually brought from the Gulf (of Mexico) all the way around the top and brought the air from the northeast,” he said, meaning warm air was ushered in along with moisture from the East Coast.
But the 31 inches of snowfall so far this month is barely above the 30 inches recorded last December, Ewens said. What makes it unique was how quickly the relative lack of snow this month caught up to last year.
“This one has such a big impact because, boom, it happened all at once,” he said.
Grand Forks’ possibly record-breaking snowfall totals from the storm top the list of highest snowfall amounts around the region as of Saturday morning. A weather service statement said Valley City had the second-highest total in North Dakota with 18.0 inches.
That was followed by Havana with 17.3 inches, Fargo with 15.2 inches and 10.5 inches recorded in both Starkweather and Lidgerwood. Pembina was also near the top with 10 inches.
Minnesota tended to have smaller totals, with Sabin leading the list at a total of 17.2 inches. Argyle had 14.7 inches, and Red Lake Falls recorded 13.2 inches. Four spots recorded an even 12 inches: Wadena, Ottertail, Elbow Lake Village and Long Lost Lake. Warroad re-corded 8.5 inches of snow.
Hoppes said meteorologists don’t expect the totals to rise much higher tonight. Much of the region should see only an additional 0.5 to 1 inch of snow. A final snowfall total of the storm will be released today.
Travel forecast
Blizzard Alvin’s heavy snowfall across the region caused most major roads to be closed Friday, with nearly all reopened by Saturday night. The only remaining closure was Interstate 29 between Grand Forks and Fargo.
North Dakota Highway Patrol Sgt. Dolf Oldenberg said the road was expected to be reopened sometime this morning. “I think it depends on the wind and how tonight goes and how early they can get out and clean things up,” he said.
Oldenberg said all Highway Patrol snowplows were pulled in the Grand Forks area about 5 p.m. Saturday and would resume work this early this morning.
All travelers are encouraged to monitor road conditions, reduce traffic speeds depending on weather conditions and use caution while traveling. For road information, call 511 from any type of phone.
To get North Dakota road information, visit http://www.dot.nd.
gov. For Minnesota roads, visit http://www.511mn.org.
The snow will soon go away, with only scattered flurries forecast for Grand Forks today. The high is expected to reach 21 degrees with windy conditions and gusts as high as 21 mph.
Hoppes said the mostly cloudy sky might even begin to clear later in the day, which could usher in a return to the more average colder weather for this time of year. Today’s low is expected to be about 2 degrees below zero.
Monday should be a partly sunny day, with no precipitation forecast and an expected high of about 13 degrees. The low is forecast to reach 9 below.
The sun should still be around Tuesday and Wednesday, with forecast highs of about 12 degrees each day. Tuesday’s low is expected to reach 5 degrees, and Wednesday could dip down to about 5 below.
Aftermath News 
