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Grand Forks AFB faces near record-breaking winter

  • Published
From Jan. 24 to 30, this base has seen weather that is among the coldest and snowiest on record, according to officials at the 319th Operations Support Squadron weather flight here.

From Jan. 24 to 26, the base received 21 inches of snow. By Jan. 28, temperatures dipped to a new winter low of minus 32 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill that hit 60 below zero.

"This is some of the heaviest snowfalls and some of the coldest temps we have seen since the 1996-97 winter season," said Staff Sgt. Mark Hendrickson, weather operations team chief for the 319th OSS weather flight. "The coldest temperature we have on our record is 40 below zero which was measured in February 1996. Our coldest January temperature on record was 36 below zero and that was measured back in 1951. We've been pretty close to all those temperatures this past week."

Sergeant Hendrickson said the base has received 50.36 inches of snow so far this winter. The average annual snowfall just over 41 inches, he said.

"In January, the average high temperature we have recorded is 14 degrees above zero and even the average low temp is 1 degree above zero," Sergeant Hendrickson said. "Also, our average snowfall for January is 7.9 inches. That should give you some idea of what type of month we are having up here."

The snowfall caused a massive amount of school closings and work stoppages throughout eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota Jan. 26, including the forcing of a minimal manning day on the base.