MPR’s Gary Eichten interviews Jim Richardson, forecaster from National Weather Service, on a developing snowstorm hitting much of the state. Richardson forecasts the Twin Cities could see as much as 6-8 inches…maybe even a foot of snow. It was a slight under-forecast. Twin Cities ended up with 28.4 inches.
Lore has claimed it as “The Halloween Blizzard,” and Minnesotan memories and tales have only increased with the passage of time. Snow started falling on the morning of October 31, 1991. By midnight, the storm had dumped 8.2 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, breaking the record for the most snow on that date. By the time it was all done three days later, the storm had dumped more than 2 feet of snow in the Twin Cities and 3 feet in Duluth. The North Shore city’s 36.9-inch snowfall set a record at the time as the largest single snowstorm total for Minnesota.
Transcripts
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SPEAKER: Well, a real winter storm is moving through the area this afternoon. The National Weather Service has now issued a winter storm warning, which will remain in effect tonight through tomorrow night for much of Southern and Eastern Minnesota, and winter weather advisories are in effect tonight for parts of Northwestern and extreme southeastern Minnesota.
Jim Richardson, who is a forecaster with the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service joins us now from the Weather Service. Good afternoon, sir.
JIM RICHARDSON: Hi, Gary.
SPEAKER: This is a tough one.
JIM RICHARDSON: Oh, it sure is, especially for this time of year.
SPEAKER: I would say it's very unusual to have this big of a storm October 31, isn't it?
JIM RICHARDSON: Yes it is. However, one of the considerations that kind of brought on this was there had been quite a bit of snow cover in central part of Canada, the South and central part of Canada over the last week or two.
And that kind of did allow some colder air to build up earlier than you would expect for this time of year. And that was sort of a mechanism to get the cold air feeding into this developing storm. So the snowpack is building up fairly rapidly up to the northwest of us.
SPEAKER: Well, that's great, of course. [LAUGHS] Now I understand that a band from Fairmont up through St. Cloud to Duluth can look for a foot of snow in about 6 to 8 inches across most of the rest of the state, is that right?
JIM RICHARDSON: Yeah, right. We think that the heaviest band will be in that southwest to northeast direction, as you mentioned, and fairly wide area of snow surrounding that, primarily the southwestern, central, and northeast parts of the state.
You mentioned the snow advisories for northwest Minnesota in the area of Alexandria and Bemidji. And that area can expect 2 to 4 inches there. And the mixture of freezing rain and sleet is still a problem in Southeast Minnesota, but that may change to all snow during the day tomorrow.
SPEAKER: Well, we certainly hope so. Now Twin Cities, what are we looking for?
JIM RICHARDSON: I think 6 to 10 inches is a pretty good bet. In fact, we've already had some reports of around 4 inches, primarily in the grassy areas. It's not building up as fast in some of the roads and driveways, but certainly with that much on the grass already, I think 6 or 8 is a pretty good bet for a lot of the area. And that 12 inch band may still yet cover the Twin Cities as well.
SPEAKER: Good thing it didn't happen last week with the World Series.
JIM RICHARDSON: Right.
SPEAKER: Yeah. Now tomorrow we get the strong winds.
JIM RICHARDSON: That's correct. The storm will intensify over eastern Iowa and into central Wisconsin. And that's when the winds will start to increase. And temperature is probably dropping off as well. And that will make the snow more of a fluffy consistency. And that could cause some significant blowing and drifting problems and maybe even near blizzard conditions in some areas. But that's one thing we'll have to watch later on tonight and tomorrow.
SPEAKER: Any idea when it's going to clear off? That is to say, when would be a good time to get back out on the roads? Obviously, this is not the best time to be driving.
JIM RICHARDSON: No, certainly not. In fact, if you can delay plans, that might even be better until, say, late Friday night or Saturday. But I think in the Twin Cities and most of Southern Minnesota, the snow should taper off, probably starting during the afternoon tomorrow, and then taper off to light snow by evening.
But again, the winds will still be strong. So that'll be causing some blowing and drifting. And the heavier snows will probably continue in the extreme northeast part of the state, in the Arrowhead region and up towards Ely and Grand Marais during Friday night.
SPEAKER: OK. Thanks, Jim. Appreciate it.
JIM RICHARDSON: OK. You're welcome.
SPEAKER: Jim Richardson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service out at the Twin Cities International.