If you live in Fargo, we haven’t even hit 40 degrees yet this year officially at the airport. If you look back through the records, there has only been a handful of years that haven’t hit 40 degrees to this point in a year. Our average first 50 degree reading will be occurring soon and… Read more No Forty
Category: Climate Data
Cloudier
During the core of winter, January and February, you often get a lot of sunny days associated with polar or Arctic high-pressure systems overhead or nearby. Once you get into March and April, you tend to have more cloudy days again as the storm track shifts farther north, or this region will be nearby to… Read more Cloudier
Freeze Depth
With all the wind events this winter, the snow has been moved and shifted several times. Many of you may be aware that the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network has soil temperatures probes situated around the region. In turn, you can get an idea of the freeze depth. Because of this shifting of snow, there… Read more Freeze Depth
Cold and Frosty Soils
The first half of December was quite mild, but ever since there has been more colder than average days than above average days. More of the cold is with us again with the next couple of mornings looking brutally cold. Last week in one of my weather presentations the discussion about frost depth came up. … Read more Cold and Frosty Soils
Windathon Continues
This region gets very used to strong wind from the north or northwest this time of year. Many farms are situated with trees to the north and west of the house and buildings to protect themselves from that standard wind direction. Today is an example that you can get a strong south wind in the… Read more Windathon Continues
Dreaming of a White Christmas
Almost all of North Dakota and the northern one-half of Minnesota will have a white Christmas this year. In fact, many of us will record more snow on Christmas day and the day after as two disturbances make their way through the upper-Midwest this weekend. White Christmas’ are almost a guarantee in far Northeastern North… Read more Dreaming of a White Christmas
Winter Precip So Far
Precipitation from the weekend’s storm averaged between a quarter and a half an inch. Oddly, even though some areas around Grand Forks got twice the amount of snow that Fargo did, the water content in the snow was very similar. Grand Forks just had a fluffier snow than what occurred around Fargo. December through February,… Read more Winter Precip So Far
Negative Season
If you look back at all 140 years of weather data for Fargo, the average date for the first below zero temperature is November 28. Today, December 6 was the first negative of this winter. So pretty close to that long-term average date. Fargo almost dropped below zero on Thanksgiving morning with a low of 2… Read more Negative Season
Windathon
The Northern Plains have experienced several strong wind events over the past two weeks, including yesterday for some parts of the area. All of these high wind situations were triggered by what is often called an Alberta Clipper. A fast-moving low pressure that tends to originate in the prairie provinces of Canada and then move… Read more Windathon
NDAWN Snow Depth
NDAWN, the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network started testing snow depth sensors at some of their stations last winter. Although not all installed yet, NDAWN should have 19 stations with snow depth sensors before real winter hits the area. These snow depth sensors measure snow depth by using sound waves. In that way it can… Read more NDAWN Snow Depth