Record late-season snows in North Dakota, but an early spring here in 'Camelot'

An all-time record spring blizzard earlier this past week dumped up to 20 inches of snow on parts of northeastern North Dakota, extreme northwestern Minnesota and southern Manitoba.

Grafton, N.D., to the north of Grand Forks, had the most snow with a whopping 20.3 inches. Grand Forks had 11.5 inches, breaking a snowfall record that had stood for more than a century. The city likewise observed minus 5 degrees on April 2, the 96th morning with readings of zero or below during the six months since the record Oct. 5 blizzard that killed 72,000 head of cattle in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The previous record for subzero days in Grand Forks was 73 days in the brutal winter of 1978-79, when many climatologists were predicting the advent of a new 'Little Ice Age' (It didn't happen as we know).

Since last October, as of this Thursday, April 3, there had been an all-time record 23 Arctic invasions during this coldest winter season in modern times in the North Country. The previous record was 13 Arctic fronts in 1978-79.

We should likewise remember that the ice coverage this past winter in early March on the Great Lakes to the east of North Dakota and Minnesota reached a near record 92.2 percent, exceeded only by the previously mentioned bitterly cold winter of 1978-79 when the icepack reached 94.7 percent on Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie. Lake Champlain, often called "the sixth Great Lake," which is located on the border of Vermont and New York where we used to live, froze solid this year for the first time this new century.

This winter of 2013-14 was also the coldest in living memory in parts of Manitoba to the north of North Dakota and Minnesota.

Manitoba's capital city of Winnipeg, or "WINTERPEG," as the locals call it, saw a record mean temperature between Dec. 1, 2013 and Feb. 28, 2014 of minus 20.3 degrees Celsius (minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit).

As of early April, the ground is still solidly frozen "to depths nobody can remember." Record subzero temperatures also occurred like in Grand Forks in Winnipeg on Wednesday, April 2.

Farmers are worried that plantings of spring crops will probably be delayed for several weeks until the frost finally gets out of the ground near the US/Canada border. Approximately 3 to 4 million acres may not be planted in 2014 due to the unprecedented cold. (Where is that dumb global warming? Remember, just last year, South America had its coldest and snowiest winter in a century. For the first time in at least 400 years, the Pyramids in Egypt were blanketed by snow this January).

I should also point out that the global warming climate-change ship during the middle of the Antarctic summer season (our winter) was stuck in ice 8 to 12 feet thick, the most summer ice since at least 1979, when polar ice records began.

One last item to address - will North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Manitoba face disastrous flooding like in recent years when the heavy snows finally melt atop the frozen ground?

Well, the trusted National Weather Service says that the snows of the winter of 2013-14 near the US/Canada border have been "dry without a lot of water," pointing to not much of a flood threat later this spring. But, I say that, if it turns warm and wet during the next 4 to 6 weeks in the North Country, there will be at least some localized lowland flooding.

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

Well, folks, for every 'extreme' weatherwise, there's always an 'opposite extreme' in fairly close proximity.

For example, a late spring in North Dakota often spells an early spring locally in beautiful 'Camelot' in North Idaho. We are truly blessed!

According to my good friend, Bob Hollingsworth, of the Wolf Lodge east of Coeur d'Alene, "the little swallows (swifts) have returned nearly a month ahead of schedule." Normally, they don't arrive until late April or early May.

Bob likewise adds, "during the past several years, the trees here haven't fully leafed out until early May or later in some cases. This year, they should be fully leafed out by the 15th to 20th of April. The elk have been in our fields for at least a week."

Despite hard freezes during the morning hours, as Randy Mann and I predicted, we are currently enjoying afternoon highs in the mid 60s. Can the 70s and even the lower 80s be far behind? I think not. Remember, as we likewise predicted, after record late January and February snowfalls in the region, that the season's snows, except for a few light 'skiffs,' would end in early March after a 'rare' North Dakota-like blizzard dropped 8 to 12 inches of the white stuff. This happened. I took my studded tires off early.

By the way, speaking of wide weather 'extremes,' we had a March 2014 total precipitation of far more than double the 1.94 inch norm at 5.40 inches, second only to the 7.51 inches that we received two years ago in 2012 on our way to our all-time record annual rainfall of 43.27 inches. Our 119-year average yearly precipitation in town since 1895 has been 26.77 inches.

Longer-term, I'm still expecting a rather wet spring season with frequent wild thunderstorms thanks to temperatures that will be warmer than usual ahead of the approaching cold fronts from the Gulf of Alaska. There will still be some mountain snows, mostly above 4000 feet, into late April or early May. Pea-sized hail will pelt spring flowers blooming in the valley during the thunderstorms. Strong winds may topple trees and signs. Torrential downpours will likely result in some lowland flooding at times. More details next week.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com