If you take a look at this satellite image:
The "white" you see in south central and south eastern Minnesota is all snow cover from yesterday’s snow storm. You’ll notice a "line drawn in the sand" as they say. Some areas had 7", whereas area just 10 miles away had only a dusting. Thundersnow (snow falling with thunder being reported) was also common with this system. If you’re heading to the Twin Cities, they were missed, just the far south eastern suburbs had a light coating of snow, but just 20 miles south of the southern Suburbs, 6-12" fell.
Some of the totals:
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT…SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
955 PM CST FRI NOV 10 2006
..TIME… …EVENT… …CITY LOCATION… …LAT.LON…
..DATE… ….MAG…. ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. …SOURCE….
..REMARKS..
0559 AM SNOW WELCH 44.56N 92.69W
11/10/2006 E5.0 INCH GOODHUE MN BROADCAST MEDIA
0615 AM SNOW FAIRMONT 43.64N 94.46W
11/10/2006 E3.0 INCH MARTIN MN LAW ENFORCEMENT
0615 AM SNOW NORTHFIELD 44.45N 93.17W
11/10/2006 E7.0 INCH RICE MN LAW ENFORCEMENT
0615 AM SNOW MADELIA 44.05N 94.42W
11/10/2006 E4.0 INCH WATONWAN MN LAW ENFORCEMENT
0630 AM SNOW BLUE EARTH 43.64N 94.10W
11/10/2006 E2.0 INCH FARIBAULT MN LAW ENFORCEMENT
0730 AM SNOW NORTH MANKATO 44.18N 94.03W
11/10/2006 E4.5 INCH NICOLLET MN PUBLIC
4 TO 4.5 INCHES OF SNOW
0800 AM SNOW JANESVILLE 44.12N 93.71W
11/10/2006 E4.0 INCH WASECA MN PUBLIC
0824 AM SNOW 8 W FARIBAULT 44.30N 93.44W
11/10/2006 E5.5 INCH RICE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0917 AM SNOW WATERVILLE 44.22N 93.57W
11/10/2006 E5.0 INCH LE SUEUR MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1007 AM SNOW RED WING 44.58N 92.60W
11/10/2006 E6.0 INCH GOODHUE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1015 AM SNOW MANCHESTER 43.72N 93.45W
11/10/2006 E9.0 INCH FREEBORN MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1045 AM SNOW LEWISVILLE 43.92N 94.44W
11/10/2006 E8.0 INCH WATONWAN MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1120 AM SNOW OWATONNA 44.09N 93.22W
11/10/2006 E7.0 INCH STEELE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1130 AM SNOW AMBOY 43.89N 94.16W
11/10/2006 E5.0 INCH BLUE EARTH MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1137 AM SNOW KIESTER 43.54N 93.71W
11/10/2006 E11.0 INCH FARIBAULT MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1137 AM SNOW MENOMONIE 44.89N 91.91W
11/10/2006 E4.5 INCH DUNN WI TRAINED SPOTTER
1204 PM SNOW MANKATO 44.17N 93.99W
11/10/2006 E8.0 INCH BLUE EARTH MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1209 PM SNOW ALBERT LEA 43.66N 93.37W
11/10/2006 E12.0 INCH FREEBORN MN TRAINED SPOTTER
1235 PM SNOW ZUMBROTA 44.29N 92.67W
11/10/2006 E6.5 INCH GOODHUE MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0130 PM SNOW GENEVA 43.82N 93.27W
11/10/2006 E11.0 INCH FREEBORN MN TRAINED SPOTTER
0130 PM SNOW MINNEAPOLIS 44.96N 93.27W
11/10/2006 E0.0 INCH HENNEPIN MN OFFICIAL NWS OBS
If you’re a weather geek, you may want to try this link for an analysis of the storm prepared by the National Weather Service Office in the Twin Cities:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=mpx&storyid=4269&source=0
Wow! Whats neat is you can see the rivers very well in the snow-covered areas. The Blue Earth River from Mankato to the Iowa border is very obvious. Winter wonderland indeed.
I was in northern Scott County on Friday, and holy cow! We got maybe a half-inch of slush that melted by noon. But only 30 miles south, they had 8-10 inches and about 60 miles away a foot with thundersnow.
with el nino in full swing I find it hard to believe that we will see anything close to that up here in the red river valley
ralphieund, an El Nino just influences the “general weather”, we could easily see such a storm at any point this winter, most areas down there had just 3-6″ of snow and it’s close to a guarantee that we’ll see a snow event like that more than once this winter.