National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Arctic Front Brings Winter Weather and Colder Temperatures to the Eastern U.S.

A series of cold fronts will bring heavy lake effect snow to the northern Great Lakes. The fronts will merge over the Ohio Valley and bring colder temperatures east of the Mississippi River later today into the end of the week. Additionally, wintry weather will develop over the Ohio Valley, Appalachians, and Northeast as rain switches over to snow tonight into Thursday morning. Read More >

A narrow, but intense snowband developed over eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota from mid-morning through early evening on 18 March 2014.  The graphic below shows the extent of the snow band around 1pm CDT.  At this time, the most intense portion of the band was only about 20-30 miles wide, but was producing snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour!  As a result, a very tight snowfall gradient was observed across the area.  For example, Watertown, SD only picked 0.1" of snow while Clear Lake, SD picked up a whopping 10.5"!  A graphical snowfall map and a few tabular snowfall listings are also provided below.

 

  • Clear Lake, SD - 10.5"
  • 5 SE Revillo, SD - 7.0"
  • Estelline, SD - 6.0"
  • Correll, MN - 6.0"
  • Wheaton, MN - 2.8"
  • Artichoke Lake, MN - 2.0"
  • Milbank, SD - 0.5"
  • Watertown, SD - 0.1"

 

Image 1:  KABR Reflecitivity at 1pm CDT:

 

 

Image 2:  Storm Total Snowfall Graphic: