GRAND FORKS, N.D., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Residents of the Great Plains and upper Midwest Friday continued digging out after a surprise blizzard dumped 11 inches of snow in North Dakota, breaking Grand Forks' previous October record snowfall of 8.2 inches.
Wednesday's ferocious storm caught people off guard and a University of North Dakota forecaster predicts the region may have one of the coldest winters in 20 years.
"We weren't prepared," Lyle Jaeger, Public Works Director in Devils Lake, N.D., told the Journal newspaper. National Weather Service forecasts had called for 1 or 2 inches of snow before winter's early arrival.
High winds whipped the snow into two-foot drifts causing traffic accidents blamed for four deaths, including a driver killed in a minivan rollover on Interstate 29. Wet snow turned the highway into a parking lot Thursday morning between Grand Forks and Thompson littered by scores of stalled cars and jackknifed tractor-trailer trucks.
Ice and blowing snow reduced speeds to 15 mph in some areas.
Plows and sand trucks worked around the clock to keep roads clear of ice but even with warmer temperatures next week snow could be on the ground for 10 days.
A wind advisory was in effect for northeast and central Minnesota, where high winds knocked out electrical power to around 4,500 customers. Gusts reached 50 mph in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
University of North Dakota weather expert Leon Osborne said the early arrival of winter may just be the beginning and that the region may get the coldest weather in 20 years.
"That doesn't mean it will turn cold and stay there, but on average, we're likely to see temperatures to average out significantly below normal," Osborne, director of the university's Regional Weather Information Center in Grand Forks, told the Bismarck Tribune. "We'll probably talk a lot about this winter for years to come."
