BROOKINGS — The worst of a winter storm that’s expected to hit Friday night into Saturday morning will be north of Brookings County, but area travelers might still want to reconsider their plans — after all, anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of snow is still predicted to fall in and around Brookings.
“The bulk of this system will begin Friday evening sometime after sunset,” Jen Hacker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, said. “The heaviest snow would be expected between midnight and about 9 a.m. Saturday, and then it’ll move out pretty quickly.”
Hacker also noted that confidence is pretty high Brookings won’t be missed, with an 80% to 90% chance of that the area will see at least a couple of inches of snow.
She said the snow in and around Brookings will end by noon or early afternoon Saturday. Total accumulation is expected to range between 2 and 5 inches in Brookings County, with higher amounts north of the county toward U.S. Highway 212 and points north of there, with 4 to 8 inches in that part of the state. Moving south toward Interstate 90 and Sioux Falls, the winter storm’s impact will be less noticeable, with anywhere from a trace to 2 inches of snow, she said.
Heading east into Minnesota, it could be a little bit trickier, Hacker said. That’s especially true toward the Marshall and Redwood Falls areas, which are expected to receive anywhere from 3 to 7 inches of snow, with even heavier snow closer to the Twin Cities, with the potential for 4 to 8 inches.
She cautioned would-be travelers about potential road conditions, and maybe to go so far as to delay hitting the road, especially since the Brookings area really hasn’t had a major snow event yet this winter.
“Really prepare for the typical wintery travel conditions — reduced visibility, snow-packed roads,” Hacker advised. “Slow down, take your time; allow extra time if you need to absolutely get somewhere.”
She also said it would be a good idea to keep road crews in mind before hitting the road on Saturday after the snow stops falling.
“Even though it might stop snowing by 9 o’clock Saturday morning or something, give the road crews a little bit of time to get out there and clean it up,” Hacker said. “By later Saturday, Saturday night, we’ll probably be a little bit more back to normal.”
Another factor to consider is the wind, but it shouldn’t be a major one, Hacker said. It will start out from the east on Friday night while the snow is falling, blowing 10 to 20 mph, then switch to the north on Saturday, still in the 10 to 20 range, with maybe some gusts up to 25 mph during the day.
“The snow is going to be a little bit on the drier side, so it’ll move around a little bit — probably looking at some drifting potential, but not a real significant blowing snow potential with this one,” she said.
Hacker told the Brookings Register that most of the visibility concerns should be primarily limited to the overnight and morning hours on Saturday.
Hacker said the new snowfall will affect daytime highs and nighttime lows in and around Brookings in the coming week.
“Now that we’d have a snowpack on the ground, it’ll be a little more difficult to warm up,” she pointed out.
That said, she expects the area to stay close to its normal values, with highs in the single digits and teens by the time midweek rolls around. Even with below-zero lows at night, though, it won’t be a polar vortex kind of cold, Hacker pointed out.
“Plain old cold, good old winter,” she said. “It’s just another Arctic front.”
Through the end of February, Hacker said the forecast models favor below-normal temperatures just a little bit, with no clear signal in regard to precipitation.
“(It’s) still looking like it’s going to remain mostly on the chilly side,” she said.
— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.
