Blizzard — Wabasha, Minnesota

2014-02-20 to 2014-02-21 · Wabasha, Minnesota

Event narrative

One person was killed in an accident on State Highway 42 near Plainview. The accident occurred on icy roads created by sleet that fell ahead of the heavy snow. Northwest winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts of 40 to 50 mph produced a period of blizzard conditions across Wabasha County. Whiteout conditions occurred during the blizzard and the blowing snow caused severe drifting to occur that closed several roads. Power outages occurred as the heavy, wet snow and the high winds combined to bring down power lines and tree branches. Road crews had a very difficult time clearing the roads and poor road conditions persisted for several days after the storm. This resulted in at least one additional accident occurring on the 23rd that resulted in non-life threatening injuries to one person. All the schools in the county were either closed or delayed the start of classes on both the 20th and 21st. The highest reported snowfall amount was 10.3 inches near Zumbro Falls and the highest recorded wind speed was 50 mph by a mesonet station near Kellogg.

Wider weather episode

Southeast Minnesota was hit by the second blizzard of the winter on February 20th and 21st as an area of low pressure tracked from southern Kansas to Lake Superior. This storm system produced almost a foot of heavy, wet snow that was then blown around by winds gusting as high as 50 mph. Before the heavy snow began falling, a period of sleet occurred during the morning and afternoon of the 20th. One person was killed in an accident on State Highway 42 just northeast of Plainview (Wabasha County) on the icy roads created by the sleet. The blowing snow created by the winds, caused whiteout conditions, produced severe drifting that closed numerous roads, knocked out the power to thousands of customers from downed power lines and blew down tree branches. At least one home in Austin (Mower County) sustained damage when part of a tree covered in the wet, heavy snow fell on it. The extremely poor visibility in the blowing snow prompted Olmsted and Mower Counties to pull their snowplows off the roads by late evening on the 20th. Road conditions deteriorated rapidly after the winds increased with almost 30 cars reported off the roads and several rollovers in the first two hours after the winds picked up. Five rescues had to be made by snowmobile in Olmsted County. In Rochester (Olmsted County), the city bus service was suspended for the first time in 32 years and all flights in and out of the Rochester airport were canceled. Several accidents occurred across Rochester, but only a few minor injuries were reported. The Governor of Minnesota issued an emergency order that allowed the National Guard to help with recovery and sheltering of stranded motorists. Almost all the schools across southeast Minnesota were either closed or utilized a delayed start both ahead of the storm on the 20th and after the storm on the 21st. The highest reported snowfall amount was 10.7 inches east of Spring Valley (Fillmore County) and the highest recorded wind speed during the blizzard was 51 mph by the automated weather observing equipment at the Rochester airport (Olmsted County).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 495395. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.