Snowplows, Bobcats, snowblowers and anything else that moves snow as well as the good old snow shovels - and all their operators - were back at it again this past weekend when a few more inches of snow fell.
Then Monday morning Minot and area residents awoke to strong winds and blowing snow causing low visibility and forcing the closing of many schools and some other activities around the area.
The snowfall recordings at the North Central Research Extension Center south of Minot showed 4 inches of snow with 0.31 inches of moisture Saturday morning, a trace of snow Sunday morning and another 1.5 inches of snow with .08 inch of moisture Monday morning.
Jim Tarasenko, research specialist at the center, records the weather information every morning.
"My January recordings show snowfall in the amount of 9.9 inches and the moisture for the month so far as being .76 inch," he said.
With the 30.8 inches of snow in December and 2 inches of snow recorded from the first snowfall of the season in October, that brings the total snowfall for the 2009-2010 season to 42.7 inches so far. No snowfall was recorded in November.
The total snowfall for 2009 recorded at the center was 71.5 inches, Tarasenko said.
Because of the high winds and blowing snow, many schools in the area were closed Monday. If they weren't closed, buses were running late or not at all in some areas.
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Power restored
Power was restored to all Verendrye Electric Co-op members Monday.
Tom Rafferty, community relations and communications manager for Verendrye, said crews worked through the blinding wind and snow to restore power that day. He said shortly after 3 p.m., all Verendrye members had power but more outages could occur that night as the wind continued to blow hard, causing whiteout conditions.
Around 45 Verendrye members were without power early Monday morning, Rafferty said. He said most of the outages were in southern Ward County near Max, Douglas, Ryder and Ruso, although an area west of Des Lacs was also affected.
Monday's severe weather conditions were a continuation of weather that caused the outages starting Friday, affecting not only Verendrye but cooperatives and utility companies throughout the state, Rafferty said.
Since Friday, there were 95 outages in the Verendrye service area, affecting about 800 members, although not all 800 members had power out at the same time.
Verendrye members can expect to experience their lights flickering throughout the storm but if they experience an outage, they should call Verendrye at 1-800-472-2141 to report it 24 hours a day. Anyone seeing downed power lines or poles should stay away from them and call Verendrye immediately.
Verendrye officials said they appreciate the patience and cooperation of members while linemen worked to restore power.
"Our linemen did an excellent job through very difficult conditions to restore power to members as quickly as possible," Rafferty said. "Today proved to be especially difficult because the wind and blowing snow made it hard for them to see what they were doing,"
For more information about Verendrye, including photos of this past weekend's outages, log onto (www.verendrye.com).
On Monday, Col. Douglas Cox, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing who also is the installation commander, approved that non-mission essential personnel who live off-base could leave work starting at noon due to the blizzard conditions, said Laurie Arellano, chief of Public Affairs at the Minot base. She said on-base residents and mission essential personnel were remaining at work as scheduled until further notice that day.
One motorist who made the trip from Underwood to Minot on U.S. Highway 83 Monday morning said at times he could see only as far as the hood of his vehicle.
A blizzard warning remained in effect Monday across western and central North Dakota, with strong winds gusting to 45 to 50 mph and light snow. Conditions were expected to improve that night as the winds decreased and light snow diminished to flurries, according to the National Weather Service. The forecast for today and the rest of the week is for cold temperatures.
