No April Fools: Heavy Wet Snowstorm For Parts Of North Dakota

A spring snowstorm has its sights on parts of North Dakota starting Tuesday.

That's right, tomorrow is April 1st, and this is no April Fools joke. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for a good share of our listening area in south-central North Dakota and much of the southeast part of the state.

The Winter Storm Watch is in effect from 7 am, Tuesday, April 1st, through 1 am, Thursday, April 3rd.

UPDATE: Expanded watch area to include parts of southwest North Dakota.

The watch area includes Burleigh, Emmons, Kidder, Logan, and McIntosh counties in south-central North Dakota.

Affected cities include Bismarck, Steele, Hazelton, Linton, Wing, Wilton, Napoleon, and Ashley.

Heavy wet snow and some blowing snow are possible with this system, which is expected to begin late on the overnight Tuesday and linger well into Wednesday. For the Bismarck area, we are looking at 3 to 7 inches of snow with locally higher amounts possible. The heaviest snowfall totals are expected in extreme southeast North Dakota. Those areas could see up to a foot of snow.

Winds will be gusty with this system and could be up as high as 40 miles per hour.

We likely won't see blizzard conditions because of how wet the snow is expected to be. However, some blowing snow is likely that could cause significantly reduced visibilities, which could affect your morning and afternoon commutes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This system is a classic Colorado Low that tends to bring us our most significant snowstorms in North Dakota. So far, for much of this winter season, most of these systems have tracked further south and east and have missed North Dakota.

We certainly need the precipitation in North Dakota as much of the state is dry. One thing's for sure: I'm not shoveling snow in April.