Southeastern North Dakota, northeastern South Dakota and west into central Minnesota are currently under a winter storm warning, with areas surrounding it under winter weather advisories.
Forecasters say snow will be falling today, tonight and into tomorrow – with the biggest concerns being the amounts of snowfall, and the rate at which it falls.
Austin Perroux is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks.
"The biggest impacts we'll see from this system are - temporary whiteout conditions from heavy snowfall rates; I know when we hear whiteout, we think blizzard, but this isn't going to be a true blizzard because winds just won't get to that height where we would see blizzard conditions. But we will get a fast rate of accumulating snow, which will fade and increase accident risk, and very hazardous travel conditions. And the snow weight is going to be very heavy - so this is going to be a very wet, and heavy snow."
Perroux says when people go to shovel this snow – which he called “heart attack snow” – it can lead to increases in rates of heart attacks, due to the heavy weight of its accumulation. He says residents to use caution, take breaks and hydrate well during any snow clearing efforts.
Perroux says heaviest accumulations of snow should happen during the overnight hours this evening, but there is still some uncertainty about who will see the most snow.
"We know somewhere in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, and portions of South Dakota - there will be heavy snowfall accumulations exceeding six inches. Unfortunately we don't quite know exactly where that's going to be; the greatest chances for that are where the warning area is, that's that southeast North Dakota into northwest Minnesota swath that we're expecting, but the slightest wobble north or south can heavily change our snowfall amounts. And this will especially be true on the northern extent of the heaviest snow."
Perroux says due to the weight and compaction of the snow, it may be difficult to determine exact accumulations.