textproduct: Grand Forks

KEY MESSAGES

- Areas of dense fog thru mid morning.

- There is a 20% chance for advisory level winter impacts from accumulating snow and gusty winds late Thursday night into early Saturday.

UPDATE

Issued at 642 AM CDT Wed Apr 15 2026

Update for aviation discussion. Fog doing fog things, some improvement in NW MN as low clouds expanded west, but overall areas not in advisory remaining dense fog free.

UPDATE Issued at 434 AM CDT Wed Apr 15 2026

Area if low clouds remain in parts of NW MN, Detroit Lakes to Park Rapids north to near Thief River Falls and Waskish. But also seeing widespread fog in the clearer areas of far northwest MN Waskish-TRF and north and considerable fog, some dense in eastern ND, not including Devils Lake. Dense fog advisory out for these areas thru 14zz. There were a few very light rain showers that moved east from Bismarck but they look to have dissipated by Jamestown, with pocket of mid clouds with that.

..Winter travel impact potential Friday into Saturday

As stronger synoptic ascent and WAA in the 850-700 MB layer overspread our CWA several periods of light to moderate precipitation (mainly rain) should move west to east through our CWA Friday into Saturday morning. All ensembles at this time support the main closed 700MB low tracking over Manitoba, placing the potential for stronger frontogensis to the north, while most precipitation in our CWA will be driven by WAA or broader deformation on the back side of the 500MB low. While there is overall strong consensus on the larger scale track, smaller scale features at the surface (low track/frontal timing) still play a role in the potential for winter impacts. A larger number of ensemble members generally keep temperature profiles in place supportive of liquid with surface temperatures above freezing outside of the overnight/morning periods for most locations (limiting potential for accumulating snow or a wintry mix). In this scenario (80% chance) most areas would see little to no accumulation (better chance for 1" in the Devils Lake Basin).

There is still a subset of members (20%) that support more organized deformation while temperature profiles are cold enough for all snow and have better chance for snow totals greater than 3". As ground temperatures are warmer, most of this will tend to be on grassy/elevated surfaces that may limit impacts outside of snow rates/wind reducing visibility where moderate/brief heavy snow would track.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 642 AM CDT Wed Apr 15 2026

Upper level wave moving into the central and southern Red River valley at 12z with area of mid/high clouds. Underneath this have fog to varying visibilities most dense Grand Forks to Cavalier and Hallock. Low clouds VLIFR or LIFR ceilings Bemidji and TVF. Overall I dont forsee a reason why fog and low clouds would not burn off during the mid to late morning. Hourly timing of vsby is an estimate in the TAFs for GFK in particular. South to southwest wind this afternoon 8-15 kts.

FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

ND...Dense Fog Advisory until 9 AM CDT this morning for NDZ007-008- 016-026>030-038-039-049-052>054. MN...Dense Fog Advisory until 9 AM CDT this morning for MNZ001>009- 013>017-029-030-040.