Ice Storm — Emmons, North Dakota

2023-12-26 to 2023-12-27 · Emmons, North Dakota

Event narrative

Utility wires were down in some locations. Travel and walking outdoors became nearly impossible given the slippery conditions as ice accumulations of well over a quarter inch occurred.

Wider weather episode

Strong low pressure meandered near the Minnesota-Iowa border while a deep upper low was slightly offset to the southwest. This resulted in a large area of precipitation developing to the north and west of the surface low. With warmer air aloft and temperatures at the surface just below freezing, freezing rain occurred through the James River Valley and back west into south central North Dakota. Initially, the freezing rain started during the late afternoon of December 25 over the far southern James River Valley, and gradually spread west-northwest through the evening and overnight as the surface low deepened and backed a bit to the west. The freezing rain continued through much of December 26, and even into the 27th over eastern areas. There were significant impacts to the power and transportation infrastructure due to the freezing rain. Over 1.5 inches of ice was noted on many power lines as far west as Burleigh County. The hardest hit areas were in the James River Valley where the heavier precipitation fell for a prolonged period of time. Multiple communities in Stutsman, LaMoure, and Logan counties were without power from December 26 through December 28, with two small communities without power until December 29. The longest reported rural residence outage was five days. Travel and walking outdoors were extremely dangerous. A portion of Interstate 94 was closed for a period of time due to the ice. Many rural electric cooperatives that were either not affected by the storm or had minimal impacts sent workers to the affected areas through mutual aid agreements to help restore power.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1152816. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.