An early season snow event produced significant snow amounts for northeast North Dakota into northwest Minnesota for early October. The heaviest snow fell in Roseau county where around a foot of heavy wet snow has been reported as of 3 pm Thursday October 4. This heavy wet snow has also produced numerous power outages across this area.

These snow amounts appear to be record amounts for this early in the season for many areas. The previous record snowfall for October 4 or earlier at the NWS in Grand Forks was 2 inches on October 2, 1950. The NWS at Grand Forks reported 3.5 inches of snow with this storm on October 4, 2012. While records from around the area indicate that the October 2, 1950 storm produced about 2-5 inches around the region with localized higher amounts, with Leeds, ND receiving 7.0 inches on October 2, 1950, and Hallock 4.5 inches.

Preliminary snowfall reports from the area

Estimated maximum snowfall accumulations as of 3 pm:

North Dakota: Max Depth:
  • Pembina (Pembina CO.) 4 Inches
  • Lankin (Walsh CO.) 3 Inches
  • Park River (Walsh CO.) 2 Inches
  • Michigan (Nelson CO.) 3.3 Inches
  • Grand Forks (GF CO.) 3.5 Inches
  • 2SE Mayville (Traill CO.) 3 Inches
  • Fargo (Cass CO.) 1 Inch (Variable 1-2)
Minnesota:
  • Hallock (Kittson Co.) 4 Inches
  • Karlstad (Kittson Co.) 6 Inches
  • 2W Badger (Roseau Co.) 12 Inches
  • 10 NNW Badger (Roseau Co.) 14 Inches
  • Roseau (Roseau Co.) 7 Inches
  • Stephen (Marshall Co.) 5 Inches
  • Middle River (Marshall Co.) 8 Inches (Variable 4-8)
  • Grygla (Marshall Co.) 3 Inches
  • Thief River Falls (Pennington Co.) 4 Inches (Variable 3-6)
  • Red Lake Falls (Red Lake Co.) 4 Inches
  • 3S Angus (Polk Co.) 8 Inches (Variable 4-8)
  • 3SE Crookston (Polk Co.) 6 Inches
  • Ada (Norman Co.) 4 Inches (Variable 3-4)
  • Moorhead (Clay Co.) 1.4 Inches (as of 7am)