Winter Storm — La Crosse, Wisconsin

2025-03-19 · La Crosse, Wisconsin

Event narrative

This winter system brought intense snow to La Crosse County on March 19th. During the late afternoon, a heavy band of snow developed over La Crosse prompting local officials to declare a snow emergency due to the excessive snowfall rates. At the NWS office in La Crosse, 2 inches of snow fell in roughly 30 minutes. Snowfall totals ranged between 4 to 9 inches across the county with the highest reported total being 8.5 inches at the NWS office 2 miles east of La Crosse.

Wider weather episode

A compact but strong winter system moved through portions of the Upper Midwest on March 19th bringing heavy snow, strong wind gusts, and even thundersnow. While snow mixed in with sleet and rain at times, eventually some colder air aloft moved into the region and switched precipitation to all snow with some locally heavy rates up to 2 to 3 inches per hour. A particularly intense band of heavy snow developed over the La Crosse area prompting local officials to declare a snow emergency. The highest snow totals in western Wisconsin occurred from La Crosse County through southern Clark County where 8 to 11 inches was observed.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1247563. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.