A significant and damaging early spring storm severely impacted much of south central North Dakota on Good Friday, April 2nd. Widespread damages to electrical utilities and nearly impossible travel conditions were common.
A strong mid level disturbance and area of surface low pressure, embedded within an eastward advecting long wave trough, lifted northeast through the central Rockies April 1st and into the Upper Mississippi Valley April 2nd. Well above freezing temperatures ahead of the main storm resulted in precipitation beginning as all rain Thursday, April 1st. Due to the strength of the mid level low and steep mid level lapse rates, convective precipitation bands and scattered thunderstorms developed late Thursday night into early Friday across south central North Dakota, dramatically increasing the dynamic cooling of the atmosphere. This dynamic cooling, combined with strong cold air advection on the back side of the surface low, resulted in the moderate to heavy rain bands across the south central to eventually change over to a mix of sleet and heavy wet snow by daybreak Friday morning. Moderate to heavy snow and sleet then continued into early Friday afternoon before gradually changing back over to rain and dissipating by Friday evening. In addition, wind gusts to near 40 mph developed Friday morning and continued through much of the day as the surface low tightened the pressure gradient across the region.
A band of six to twelve inches of heavy wet snow fell from Grant and Morton counties through parts of Burleigh, McLean, and Sheridan counties. Snowfall amounts quickly dropped off west, north, and east of this area. Numerous road closures and no travel advisories were issued by county and state officials due to several inches of snow and slush coating roads.
Most significant was the widespread utility damage that occurred, resulting in massive power outages to thousands of customers. The combination of heavy wet snow sticking to power lines and poles and the strong winds, resulted in thousands of power poles and hundreds of high voltage transmission towers collapsing. Preliminary damage assessments from this storm exceeded thirty-five million dollars.