Winter Storm — Watonwan, Minnesota

2022-01-14 · Watonwan, Minnesota

Event narrative

Several sources across the county indicated that between 6 and 9 inches of snow fell.

Wider weather episode

This storm was associated with a mid-level trough, along with a surface inverted trough centered across the eastern Dakotas. Most of the energy with this system was mid-level warm air advection across west central, southwest and south central Minnesota between Friday morning, through early Friday evening, January 14th. Light snow started Friday morning across western Minnesota and quickly moved southeast. Bands of moderate snowfall produced locally 1 inch per hour snowfall rates. The storm prediction center (SPC) highlighted west-central, southwest and south central Minnesota 3 times Friday with snowfall rates increasing. A broad area of light snow slowly expanded in areal coverage during the morning and spread as far east as east-central and southeast Minnesota. The heaviest snowfall occurred in a band from Madison, Minnesota, southeast toward Fairmont. Within this band, snowfall amounts ranged from 6-10 inches, with the heaviest along the Buffalo Ridge. The snowfall tapered off during the afternoon and evening from northwest to southeast as the storm moved out of the region.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1001855. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.