textproduct: Grand Forks

KEY MESSAGES

- Round one of two rounds of accumulating snow will begin Wednesday afternoon and continue into Thursday night. There is an 80 percent chance for advisory level impacts mainly south and east of a Cooperstown to Warroad line. A 50 percent chance for warning impacts near Park Rapids and Wadena.

- Round two of snow will move in on Friday and Saturday. This system is currently expected to have a bigger footprint of snow with a large area of advisory impacts possible. There is a 20 percent chance for warning impacts.

..Round two of snow Friday/Saturday

The upper trough coming out into the Plains for the weekend is well wrapped up as it comes arrives in the region, with strong synoptic lift Friday into Friday night. A few low (less than 20 percent) probabilities of mixed precipitation show up briefly Friday in the ensemble, but overall it seems this system will again be mostly snow. Deformation band with fairly high QPF continues through most of the day on Saturday, and it looks like there will be a fairly broad area of at least 2 inches of snow. Probabilities of over 6 inches are 20 percent at this point, so warning level impacts are not out of the question. Given this is the second of two systems will hold off on any headlines for the moment and message two rounds of snow.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 612 PM CDT Tue Mar 31 2026

Stratocumulus should diminish this evening giving way to VFR conditions and diminishing winds. As this occurs, expect variable wind directions due to light winds at times. East- southeasterly winds increase tomorrow afternoon as a winter system approaches from the west. A swath of snow is expected to develop and impact FAR by late afternoon tomorrow. Most TAF sites will eventually see MVFR to IFR ceilings associated with this system even without precipitation, however the bulk of this should be closer to the end or after the end of the TAF period. Visibility reductions from snow will be dependent on snowfall rates which has a low predictability to time out. Expect anywhere between MVFR to LIFR visibilities within falling snow.

FGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

ND...Winter Weather Advisory from 1 PM Wednesday to 7 PM CDT Thursday for NDZ024-028>030-038-039-049-052-053. MN...Winter Weather Advisory from 1 PM Wednesday to 7 PM CDT Thursday for MNZ002-003-022-023-027>031-040. Winter Weather Advisory from 7 PM Wednesday to 1 AM CDT Friday for MNZ006-009-016-017. Winter Storm Watch from Wednesday evening through late Thursday night for MNZ024-032.