Storm coming through region

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The National Weather Service office in Bismarck has issued a winter storm watch from Saturday night through Monday morning for Jamestown and most of south-central North Dakota.

Depending on where it tracks, the storm could produce 4 to 8 inches of snow in the Jamestown area with winds steady at 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph Sunday night into Monday morning.

WDAY-6 Meteorologist John Wheeler said this will be a big storm.

“It’s still off the coast of southern California,” he said. “It looks like it will have a southwest-to-northeast orientation.”

Wheeler said the computer models show this storm could dump up to a foot of snow in areas along its path.

“But, that doesn’t mean it will drop a foot a snow everywhere,” he said.

Previous winter storms this season had a high-pressure system from Canada pushing down on it to keep it on a southerly track.

Wheeler said there is a small possibility the storm could track more to the northwest, which would bring more snow to the Jamestown area.

“I think Fargo and areas southeast of Fargo will get the most snow,” he said.

Todd Hamilton, NWS meteorologist in Bismarck, said the storm is expected to move into the Great Lakes region by Monday morning.

“The main time for the Jamestown area looks to be late Saturday night through Sunday night,” he said.

Hamilton said a low-pressure system is moving out of Colorado and will mix with some warm air up out of the Gulf Coast.

“Right now (Friday) it looks like the storm will track across central Nebraska into southern Minnesota,” he said.

If the storm moves as predicted, the highest snow totals will fall on north-central Nebraska to eastern South Dakota.

“The northern tip of the storm looks like it will brush the far south-central North Dakota and southern James River Valley area,” Hamilton said.

Saturday will start partly sunny with a high temperature of 26. The winds will be five to seven mph out of the northwest, then switch to out of the north by afternoon. Saturday night the NWS forecasts a 30 percent chance of snow after midnight with a low of around 14. The wind will be six to 10 mph.

Snow is likely before noon Sunday, with areas of blowing snow after noon. The high will be near 23 with a north wind of 11 to 16 mph, increasing to 24 to 29 mph 9 in the afternoon, with gusts as high as 40. There is a 60 percent chance of precipitation.

The steady snow will continue into Sunday night, with widespread blowing snow after 7 p.m. The low will be around 13. The snow is expected to taper off after 7 a.m. Monday, with the high near 18.

Sun reporter Chris Olson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at colson@jamestownsun.com

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