Heavy snow threat for southeast ND Thu night and Friday

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by SouthernStar

Ya know, my husband is very interested in weather for some strange reason. So was my grandpa. Geeks

Sorry for the hijack here, but how often do you get tornados and how bad are they? My current town is apparently in the "new tornado alley" and we have had two awful tornados come through my neighborhood-one in 2006 and one a few months ago. Lots of people died, many homes do not have basements or storm shelters. I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with that anymore when we moved--I'll gladly trade them for snow and blizzards!

Here is a nice map from NWS Bismarck showing all tornadoes F0 to F5 that have been documented in ND from 1950....

Historical Tornado Map for North Dakota

Most tornadoes up here are weak F0 or F1 with higher stronger rated ones rather rare...but every 4-5 years a strong Tornado will occur. But our severe season is much shorter than yours down south (usually May-Sept...mostly Jun-Aug).... and thus just less likely on average to see one up here. But they do occur and can occur anywhere given the right ingredients.

Dan

[jojo61397]

I got a pretty cool picture of a tornado over Minot AFB in 2000. I have lived here 7 years and have seen one-- 2000-2003 I saw one tornado, and I am/was a trained weather spotter. Out here summer weather we've had more lightening than anything else. We have lost appliances and trees due to lightening strikes.

[SouthernStar]

How is your weather up there today? Let us know when you get a chance! Post pictures if you have them. I hope you have power and all is well.

We're having tornados here in TN today. Not much damage, just scary. I was racing home when we heard the watch, straight into a huge wall cloud. Not fun.

[FargoBison]

Originally Posted by SouthernStar

How is your weather up there today? Let us know when you get a chance! Post pictures if you have them. I hope you have power and all is well.

We're having tornados here in TN today. Not much damage, just scary. I was racing home when we heard the watch, straight into a huge wall cloud. Not fun.

The big storm didn't really come together in Fargo, so all we had to deal with was an inch of snow and a ton of wind. Thankfully, the temp stayed at about freezing for most the time so we didn't have to deal with any nasty ice. I can deal with the -20 cold, blizzards, and extreme temps but the ice storms are never fun.

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by FargoBison

The big storm didn't really come together in Fargo, so all we had to deal with was an inch of snow and a ton of wind. Thankfully, the temp stayed at about freezing for most the time so we didn't have to deal with any nasty ice. I can deal with the -20 cold, blizzards, and extreme temps but the ice storms are never fun.

There were incredible snowfall gradients once again. Down in southern Richland county ND around the Casino and Fairmount there was 13-15 inches of snow....to only 4-6 in Wahpeton-Breck....then a little hole of not too much in the F-M area then another band of 3-5 Grand Forks back toward Cooperstown.

Preliminary Snowfall for Apr 11, 2008

Dan