Blizzard — Pennington, Minnesota

2025-12-18 · Pennington, Minnesota

Event narrative

First visibility reduction of a quarter mile or less occurred at 816am, 3 miles south of Thief River Falls, and persisted until 145pm. Wind gusts were in the range of 40mph to 50mph.

Wider weather episode

A strong clipper type system moved through the Northern Plains and upper Midwest, and brought hazardous winter impacts and high winds to eastern North Dakota and northwest and west central Minnesota. Initially rain and freezing rain fell ahead of the snow, followed by flash freeze conditions as light to moderate snow developed and brought 1 to 4 inches of snowfall to northwest Minnesota, with a localized region of heavier snow over the Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods County. Peak winds were in the 60 to 72 mph range during this evening and combined with falling snow to produce blizzard conditions in the Red River Valley of northwest Minnesota. The icy roads at the onset of the event exacerbated difficult to impossible travel as blizzard conditions developed.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1307455. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.