Image credit: K. Foshay, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
A series of mostly weak weather disturbances passing through a cold air mass left a fresh blanket of snow over Minnesota, with enormous piles accumulating in some far northeastern areas.
There were no true snowstorms or raging cyclones during the week of November 14, 2022, but numerous episodes of mostly light snow, generally lasting 6-12 hours each, produced widespread totals of 2-6 inches across Minnesota.
The snows from Monday into Wednesday were associated with weak low pressure circulations moving into Minnesota from the west. The flow around these systems allowed the winds to blow off of Lake Superior towards towards the North Shore, where the moistened air currents dramatically enhanced some of the snow that was already falling. As a result, accumulations in the higher terrain just inland from the lake exceeded one foot, with a some locations receiving even more.
Snowfall totals through Friday morning from National Weather Service Cooperative and CoCoRaHS observers included 31 inches near Hovland in Cook County, 27.4 inches at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, 21.4 inches west of Grand Marais, 18 inches outside of Silver Bay (with 11.2 inches at the official NWS Cooperative site in town), 10 inches to the northwest of Two Harbors, 8.2 inches in Duluth, 6.3 inches at International Falls, 4.5 inches in the Twin Cities, 4.1 inches in St. Cloud, and 3.4 inches at Rochester.
November 18, 2022