Blizzard — Rock, Minnesota

2018-04-13 to 2018-04-15 · Rock, Minnesota

Event narrative

Life threatening conditions developed during the morning of April 14, as the earlier mix of rain, sleet and snow changed to all snow, and brutal winds (gusting as high as 58 mph at Luverne) whipped visibility to less than a quarter mile at times through the evening of April 14. Travel was not recommended for much of the two day period, if not impossible. A storm total snowfall of 8.5 inches was measured at Luverne. During the storm, a male riding a snowmobile was killed when his vehicle hit a guard rail at high speed along Interstate 90.

Wider weather episode

The most intense storm of the month, in fact many months, wrapped up across the central Plains on April 13, spreading a mix of wintry precipitation across the area, accompanied by numerous thunderstorms. Not included in this episode was the spotty severe hail and wind which occurred in southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota prior to the onset of snowfall during the morning and afternoon of April 13.

Eventually, influx of colder air would change all precipitation over to snow, and ushered in a record-breaking snowfall of 8 to 16 inches (some locations over 20 inches) and fierce winds gusting 50 to 60 mph to southeast South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, northwest Iowa and extreme northeast Nebraska. Snow drifts over 6 feet were reported in many locations. Extremely low visibility persisted for almost a day for most locations, making travel very difficult if not impossible.

One person was killed in Rock County when the snowmobile he was riding collided with an interstate guard rail.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 753636. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.