Winter Storm — Faribault, Minnesota

2020-04-12 · Faribault, Minnesota

Event narrative

Most of the county had between 5 to 7 inches of snow with a report of 7.5 inches near Bricelyn.

Wider weather episode

Late Friday night, and into Saturday, April 12th, a strong system started organizing across the northern and central Rockies, with moisture building in the central plains ahead of the system. A cold front moved as far south as southeast Minnesota, and west central Wisconsin before stalling Saturday night. A surface low developed across Colorado Saturday, before intensifying and moving east-northeast across the plains, and into the Great Lakes by Sunday night. Most of central and southern Minnesota, as well as west central Wisconsin were in the cold side of this storm system. Only the far southeast part had enough warm air to cause some mixing of sleet, and rain before changing over to snow Sunday. This was noted with the next day visible satellite image which had a sharp cutoff of where no snow accumulated in the far southeast part of Minnesota.

Due to the initial weak short waves ahead of the main storm system moving out into the plains Sunday morning, some light snow began in portions of southwest and south central Minnesota. Most of the snowfall prior to sunrise Sunday was light with light accumulations. Once stronger forcing develop Sunday morning, does the snowfall intensity increase. The initial band of heavier snowfall was noted in south central Minnesota where 3 to 6 inches fell before early Sunday afternoon. By the afternoon, a secondary band of heavier snowfall began in southwest Minnesota, and slowly moved eastward during the afternoon, and into the early evening across west central Wisconsin before weakening. This band of heavier snowfall was related to strong forcing in the 850-700 MB layer. Snowfall amounts of 6 inches or more occurred in this band by the mid afternoon before it tapered off and moved east into Wisconsin. This is when the bulk of the snow accumulated but lighter snowfall still remained over south central and east central Minnesota before ending Sunday evening.

The following are some of the higher snowfall totals:

8.7 inches around Owatonna.

7.5 inches near Lakeville.

7.3 inches near Prior Lake.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 876035. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.