Blizzard — Divide, North Dakota

2022-04-23 to 2022-04-24 · Divide, North Dakota

Event narrative

Strong winds and heavy snow combined to produce a blizzard. In addition, periods of freezing rain occurred which accreted on power lines. This, combined with strong winds, led to extensive damage to power lines, cross arms, and poles, and thus widespread power outages.

Wider weather episode

A strong Colorado low lifted through North Dakota. Initially, a wintry mix of rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow developed over western and central North Dakota. As temperatures dropped over the northwest and far north central, ice accumulated on power lines. Strong winds developed, with precipitation eventually changing over to all snow. The strong winds combined with the ice on the power lines leading to thousands of power poles and cross arms breaking, resulting in widespread power outages throughout the northwest into the far north central. On the evening of April 24, almost all of the northwest part of the state was without power. Some residential services in rural areas took over three weeks to have power restored, and some non-residential services were not restored until mid-June. As the snow combined with the strong winds, visibility dropped to zero across western and parts of central North Dakota. Interstate 94 closed from the Montana state line to Mandan, and most other roads were impassable. Due to the after-effects of the blizzard and power outages, the American Red Cross opened warming shelters in Crosby and Williston, and provided showers and meals to many individuals. Snowfall totals of over a foot and a half were reported, though were tough to measure with wind gusts over 70 mph. As of the writing of this episode, power companies and government officials were still in the process of calculating financial losses. With that said, expectations are that at a minimum, the financial impact from this storm was at least 60 million dollars. It should be understood that this value, and the individual county event entries, are rough estimates.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1020471. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.