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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Winter wallop

First major storm of the season packs a punch in the North Country

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 12/15/22

REGIONAL— The area’s first major winter storm of the season struck with a vengeance on Wednesday with heavy, dense snow and considerable wind as a Colorado low moved across the Plains and …

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Winter wallop

First major storm of the season packs a punch in the North Country

Posted

REGIONAL— The area’s first major winter storm of the season struck with a vengeance on Wednesday with heavy, dense snow and considerable wind as a Colorado low moved across the Plains and into the North Country.
Most schools in the region were closed Wednesday in anticipation of the storm, although the Ely schools remained open. All St. Louis County School District schools were closed as were most schools on the Iron Range and especially near Duluth and up the North Shore, where more than a foot of snow was expected.
Weather models had been pointing to a major event for more than a week and as the models came into agreement on the storm’s track and its potential impacts, it appeared that northeastern Minnesota would be among those areas in the bullseye.
As of midday on Wednesday, the National Weather Service was forecasting as much as two-and-a-half feet of snow for the North Shore’s higher terrain, with seven-to-11 inches forecast through Thursday for much of central and northern St. Louis County.
Much of Lake County was expecting anywhere from 12-24 inches.
The low was also forecasted to move slowly across the Upper Midwest, with predictions it could bring almost continuous snowfall from late Tuesday night through midday on Saturday. Weather forecasters were not offering entire storm totals although forecasts through Saturday pointed to as much as a foot across much of northern St. Louis County by the time the storm moves out this weekend.
With relatively mild temperatures accompanying the storm, the weather service is predicting heavy wet snow that’s likely to accumulate on trees and powerlines. The powerful low pressure system was expected to bring considerable wind along with the snow and the weather service warned residents to anticipate power outages due to downed lines.
The snow will eventually be followed by much colder temperatures, with highs forecasted in the low single digits for all of next week, with lows around minus 10.