Skip to main content

Boreal Community Media

Video: March snowstorm's impact on Northlanders

Mar 12, 2021 06:27AM ● By Editor

Watch the WDIO-TV Report here

Photo: WDIO-TV

By Alejandra Palacios of WDIO-TV - March 11, 2021

Wednesday night's storm hit some areas worse than others, depending on where you were. Everything from snow, rain, hail, strong wind gusts and even tornado warnings.

"The snow was over half of the tire of the car. When I came out I was like oh my...and then I later found out I had to help shovel and I was like ugh," said 10-year-old Alexis Otto of Duluth.

"I said I was spoiled by that taste of spring. I was sad at first but then you look out at how beautiful it is and I’m embracing it now again. Maybe I'll get one more time of skiing," said Karla Miller of Duluth.

"It was an intense storm, we had some nice wind overnight, about 35 miles an hour," said Kayla Otto.

The snow storm had a different impact depending where you were across the state. 

The Iron Range and the Arrowhead saw six to nearly 12" inches of new snow. The National Weather Service saw seven inches of snow.

In Wisconsin, parts of Douglas and Bayfield counties saw an inch or two of snow.

"We had a winter side of this where we had heavy snow falling across much of northeastern Minnesota. We also had a warm side of this weather system, where much of northwest Wisconsin was seeing heavy rain and even a little bit of minor flooding going on so you had a whole lot going on at once," said Joshua Sandstrom, a meteorologist for the Duluth National Weather Service.

"Hermantown had a power outage at the elementary school, so no school today," said Otto.

The Otto family has four daughters and two sons. They teamed up to take care of the snow shoveling duties. And just when the Otto family thought they were done shoveling their driveway, a snow plow passed by and left more snow on their sidewalk for them to shovel.

Many community members are hoping this is the last bit of snow.

"I for sure am hoping this is the last snow fall. We love winter, we have a daughter named Winter, but we also love the warm too and we got some April birthdays coming up that we want to enjoy outside," said Otto.

"Please! Please!" said Dale Miller, when asked if he wants the snow to be over. His wife, Karla, answered why he wants it to be over. "He was on his Harley earlier this week and he misses it!"

The weather service answered if this will be the last bit of snow we will see.

"I can't guarantee that we're out of the woods just yet as far as snowfall goes. We could still see some more snow, we could even see another potential snowstorm. There's nothing on the horizon right now but you know it's certainly not out of the question," said Sandstrom.

Sandstrom also reminded people to take it easy when shoveling snow because it's wet and heavy. Also, with the snow likely melting this weekend with the weather warming up, pay close attention on basements and sump pumps.

"One concern is the low level ponding and lower elevation areas and potential for flooding in basements so that's something that people should kind of keep an eye on," said Sandstrom.


To see the original story and read related reports, follow this link to the WDIO-TV website.  https://www.wdio.com/duluth-minnesota-news/march-storm-reaction-/6039931/?cat=10335

Boreal Ship Spotter - larger view here