Kim Fundingsland/MDN Minot’s Main Street didn’t escape the effects of the Christmas blizzard. This photograph was taken late Monday afternoon at the south end of Main Street. Snow removal crews will likely have to haul snow out of the Main Street area since there is little room to pile it downtown.

Wham! The Christmas blizzard of 2016 will go down as one of the most memorable in state history.

The National Weather Service had warned far in advance that a major winter storm was going to have a severe impact on North Dakota. However, even after the NWS issued a blizzard warning well before the storm, weather conditions appeared contradictory. The snowfall and high winds that were to begin Christmas morning were slow to reach the Minot area, causing some to think the storm was more hype than reality.

By late Christmas Day a brief period of sleet turned to light snow in the Minot area. Then, under cover of darkness, the blizzard ripped into the city and continued to dump snow that was whipped into monster drifts by winds gusting in excess of 40 miles per hour. By Monday morning, the city was all but paralyzed by deep snow.

Doorways, driveways and sidewalks were choked with knee to waist high snow or higher. Almost every business in the city was closed. It mattered little. Only a handful of people could get their vehicles out of their driveways and, if that was accomplished after considerable effort, the snow was so deep on city streets that driving wasn’t possible.

The Minot Police Department issued a rare “no travel” advisory for the city and noted that the Street Department was focused on keeping emergency routes open in the face of strong winds that continued to drift snow even during the early afternoon hours Monday. Several stranded vehicles in the city were hampering snow removal efforts. The PD warned that opening secondary routes and residential streets was “unlikely” to happen Monday.

While the amount of snow that fell during the storm varied by location, most estimates ranged from 12-16 inches. The Minot area had received about 25 inches of snow in the weeks prior to the onset of the blizzard, some of it coming in November. The additional snowfall from the latest storm makes this December one for the record books. The most snow ever totally dumped on Minot for the December was 28.4 inches in 2008. Officially, Minot had received about nine inches of December snow prior to the Christmas blizzard, so another 12-16 inches pushes the total into perhaps the top three snowfall rankings of all-time.

There’s little doubt that daily snowfall records were also smashed during the storm, although precise calculation is somewhat confusing because the NWS no longer measures the official amount of snow in each snowfall but relies instead upon citizen observers located at sites that differ from where long-time records were kept. Snowfall totals are logged at the North Central Research and Extension Center south of Minot, but the 24 hour reporting period there differs from existing NWS record keeping. Nevertheless, it appears a certainty that the Christmas Day record of 3.8 inches set in 1950 and the Dec. 26 mark of 4.9 inches of snow set in 1988 have been surpassed.

Minot’s snow removal crews that worked shifts virtually non-stop for a month were to have been rewarded with a full weekend off. That possibility came to an end at 3:00 p.m. Christmas Day.

“It almost seems like Groundhog Day,” said Derek Hackett, City of Minot public information officer. “They started yesterday afternoon and will run all hours of the day and night.”

Even with a full compliment of city snow removal equipment and workers on the job, Hackett said it is not likely that snow removal in residential areas will begin until later today. First to be targeted, said Hackett, are the areas of northwest and northeast Minot that were hardest hit by the storm.

Pedestrians, snowmobiles and snow removal equipment outnumbered passenger vehicles for most of Monday in Minot. Digging out is likely to take several days, thanks to the heavy snowfall driven by vicious winds. Belcourt recorded gusts of 62 miles per hour during the storm. Elsewhere, Garrison’s peak gusts registered 53 mph, Tioga, Rugby and Minot Air Force Base at 47 mph, Minot at 45 mph and Coleharbor at 43 mph.

Among the many closures in the city due to the storm was the Minot International Airport. The airport is scheduled to reopen at 3 a.m. today.