textproduct: Grand Forks

KEY MESSAGES

- Early morning snow ends. A second period of light snow is possible late Tuesday into Tuesday night near the South Dakota border into parts of west central Minnesota with up to 1 inch of new snow.

- Accumulating snow and high winds are possible Thursday afternoon with uncertainty in details like magnitude and location.

- Uncertainty remains in where accumulating snow falls this weekend but chances for area impacts are worth monitoring.

UPDATE

Issued at 357 AM CDT Tue Mar 10 2026

Radar showed continued banding and high radar returns from east of Forman to Lidgerwood to Wahpeton to near Fergus Falls. 3 inches from several reports in Wahpeton and felt like additiona 1-2 inches is possile in a few areas bringing potential snowfall totals 4-5 inches...outside chance of 6. Felt it was high enough chance to get over 4 inches in a narrow zone so issued winter wx advisory for this for far SE ND into a part of WC MN thru 12z Tue.

UPDATE Issued at 1142 PM CDT Mon Mar 9 2026

No changes in messaging but as things seem to be going as expected with heavy but transient banded snowfall across the southern reaches of the forecast area. Heaviest snow should move away from I-94 after 4am and out of the area entirely by 7am. Visibility is currently the worst it has been with much of Wilkin and western Ottertail reporting as low as 1/4SM but with wind only gusting up to 20mph BLSN is not really occuring and thus VIS quickly improves once banding moves into a different location. Probably about halfway through the event now so most areas seeing up to another inch with isolated additional totals of around 2 inches. THis brings event totals to 1-2" and locally up to 3".

UPDATE Issued at 630 PM CDT Mon Mar 9 2026

Snow has begun to move across the southern tier of the area mainly staying along and south of the I94/HWY10 corridors. Snow is mainly sticking on the grass so far but some accumulations have been noted on the shoulders of roads and occasional accumulation outside of wheel tracks. The main impact is the occasionally heavy rates driving visibility as low as 1/2SM across the area with an SPS now in effect to raise awareness for this visibility threat through midnight.

..SYSTEM #3: SATURDAY/SUNDAY

Finally, another system is highly likely to traverse the intermountain west and eastward towards our region. Once again, because model dispersion greatly increases from System #2, it is even worse with respect to Saturday/Sunday. There is high confidence that at least something will impact the Northern Plains, however to what extent are the impacts is highly uncertain and carries a low predictability.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 1142 PM CDT Mon Mar 9 2026

All TAF sites currently VFR the FAR the only site that is still occasionally MVFR as snow occasionally wobbles north the next few hours creating a lower ceiling. TEMPO'd a MVFR for FAR from now to 09z to account for this. Winds variable across the area but under 12 kts through the period and thus not hitting any defined criteria for wind shifts at any sites. Tomorrow as another band of snow expands northeast out of SD and southern MN MVFR ceilings are possible at both FAR and BJI after 15z and 21z respectively and seem unlikely to reach IFR unless the snow band shifts dramatically farther north.

FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

ND...Winter Weather Advisory until 7 AM CDT this morning for NDZ052- 053. MN...Winter Weather Advisory until 7 AM CDT this morning for MNZ029>031.