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Snow Squall Warning issued for eastern North Dakota / western Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier •

5-minute GOES-19 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” (1.61 µm) images (left) and GOES-19 Near-Infrared “Snow/Ice” images with an overlay of Mayville ND 0.5 degree Radar Reflectivity (right), from 1801-2301 UTC on 27 February; METAR surface reports are plotted in yellow, Interstate highways are plotted in violet and a Snow Squall Warning polygon is plotted in red [click to play MP4 animation]

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Near-Infrared “Snow Ice” images along with Radar Reflectivity images (above) showed a band of clouds producing precipitation that was moving southward across the North Dakota/Minnesota border region on 27 February 2026. Moderate to heavy snow produced by this feature — along with blowing snow created by strong winds — prompted the issuance of a Snow Squall Warning at 2008 UTC that included a portion of Interstate 29 in the vicinity of Grand Forks (2011 UTC GOES-19 image). Peak wind gusts reached 51 kts (59 mph) at Grand Forks ND (KGFK), and the surface visibility was reduced to less than 1/4 mile with heavy snow at Crookston MN (KCKN).

Day Snow-Fog RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below) displayed the southward progression of this cloud band (brighter shades of white: 2011 UTC image) — as well as narrow northwest-to-southeast oriented horizontal convective rolls (a signature that highlights areas where significant blowing snow is occurring) in the wake of the cloud band responsible for the Snow Squall Warning. Areas of snow cover exhibited brighter shades of red.

5-minute GOES-19 Day Snow-Fog RGB images centered at Grand Forks ND, from 1801-2301 UTC on 27 February [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Geo2Grid, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Winter weather