Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Local contractor Ryan Hager is seen here plowing snow west of 13th Street on Friday, Dec. 16. Photo by Nathan Price.
The entire state of North Dakota was shut down during this snowmageddon of a snow storm. Most roads were under no travel advised, but Interstate 94 from Fargo to Dickinson was shut down.
Downtown New Rockford was filled with piles and piles of snow after the city crew pushed the snow off the streets and avenues.
New Rockford residents on 2nd Avenue North are shown snow blowing paths to the road.
Underneath all the snow is a car parked along 1st Avenue North.
Jim Hovey drives his John Deere lawn tractor with snowblower attachment down 9th Street North.
For nearly a week, from Dec. 12 through Dec. 16, Foster County and much of the Great Plains endured one of the most severe and long-lasting blizzards in recent memory.
Most of North Dakota was effectively shut down, as crews worked around the clock to clear city streets. Meanwhile, Monday's freezing rain and the near-zero visibility that followed often made county roads and highways impassable.
Both the New Rockford-Sheyenne and Carrington Public Schools, and many more throughout the state, were forced to remain closed for much of the week.
There were 300 customers without power in the Northern Plains Electric Cooperative (Northern Plains) service area on Thursday, Dec. 15 when lineworkers were called in during some of the storm's worst blizzard conditions. After power was restored on Friday morning, Northern Plains recognized the Wells County and Stutsman County road department staff, who helped clear Hwy. 3 to blaze a trail so their Carrington crews could attend to outages south of Hurdsfield. There were also reports that farmers helped clear snow so linemen could repair damaged lines and restore power.
By the afternoon of Dec. 16, wind gusts of 41 miles per hour had been recorded in New Rockford, with even higher gusts in Harvey and Jamestown.
Then there's the sheer amount of snowfall. The National Weather Service (NWS) reported more than 19 inches of snowfall in Devils Lake, and as many as 25 inches in Enderlin, N.D. The Carrington and New Rockford areas received somewhere in the 18" to 24" range.
The NWS Service of Bismarck told the Transcript on Tuesday that one observer four miles north of Carrington reported 20.5 inches of snow during the December blizzard, and that the total snowfall in Foster County for December is as much as 26 inches.
According to the NWS, a massive low pressure system is to blame.
"The scale of the low pressure system impacting the Northern Plains is so large it is pulling moisture from the Atlantic Ocean!" they reported on their Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 16.
The sheer volume of snowfall is already breaking records for this time of year.
According to the NWS, "This winter the Bismarck area has received a record setting snow spanning from October 1 to December 31 ... Most of the snow has come from two major storms, the November Blizzard and the December Blizzard we just experienced. We are about 30 inches over our average snowfall for this time of year."
Many were hoping for a more tame winter than was endured this time last year, when the Red River Valley experienced more blizzards (13) than any other in recorded history. The only other winters that came close were the 2013-14 and 1996-97 winters, which saw 10 blizzards each.
However, at the current pace, this winter is looking like it may be yet another for the record books. More snow was falling at press time Wednesday, and motorists were again impacted by reduced visibility and snow-and-ice covered roads.
