First Winter Storm Blows into Bismarck

Bismarck, North Dakota - The first major winter storm to hit North and South Dakota in 2008 started on Thursday, November 6. It moved in from the west, causing highway closures and travel advisories in both states.

Here in Bismarck, where I live, the storm started mildly, with mist and some light rain. By mid-morning, the wind had kicked up to about 20 mph, and kept increasing. By 1:00 p.m. CT, light snow was falling, and by 3:00 p.m. I couldn't see across the street, and snow was drifting in my driveway. It was a light dry snow, but it just kept falling, and the wind increased to around 28 mph, gusting to around 40 mph in Bismarck as it howled around my home, and gusting to 48 mph in Minot, and reportedly even higher in South Dakota, according to the National Weather Service.

At 6:00 p.m. my power went out. I was ready with a flashlight and candles, and extra blankets in the living room and bedroom, but the power was restored in less than a minute. From 6:00 to 7:30, the power continued to blink off then come back on as the wind howled around my home, and snow drifted against my back door and garage door. I sat wrapped in a blanket and drinking herbal tea, praying that I wouldn't lose power as I listened to the snow-laden bushes outside my house beating on the windows. At about 7:45, my power went out and stayed out for about 4 hours.

My house is connected to the same distribution box as four other homes, and ours were the only ones in my part of town that lost power. Because my only phone is a mobile one, in an electric charger, I wasn't able to call Montana-Dakota Utilities, our power company, but apparently one of my neighbors did, because a crew came out within an hour. My visibility was still very limited; I could barely see my neighbor's lights across the street, and could just see lights of the very few vehicles that passed along my street, but other than that, it was a total white-out.

The temperature in my home was about 62 degrees when I lost power that evening, and it dropped to about 55 before power was restored. The blankets kept me warm, and the light of the candles made me wonder if this was anything like my great-grandmother endured in the Great Blizzard of 1888. It wasn't, of course; she was in the sod house she'd built herself, which may well have been warmer than my home, given the thickness of the sod walls, and her fireplace, I hope, was well-stocked with wood. Her blizzard lasted for days and killed livestock and people across the western part of North Dakota; mine only lasted overnight.

By Friday morning, light snow was falling and the wind, which had been blowing up from the southwest, had turned and was blowing down from the northeast, but without the fury it had shown the night before. I was up with my dogs by 7:00 a.m., and could barely push my back door open. My long-legged Akita and I waded through the snow to the fenced back yard, and I pulled the gate open far enough to get her in. She rejoiced in the snow. That made one of us. I had to keep my smaller dog inside for the day, because the snow was deeper than she is tall.

I wasn't able to leave my home on Friday, not that I wanted to. All the highways were passable by about 10:00 a.m. CT, but travel advisories were still in effect for the back roads and less traveled areas, and the snowplow didn't reach my street until Saturday morning. On Friday, the snow had drifted above the handle on my garage door, so I wasn't able to open it to get to my shovel. It was about 3 feet deep down my driveway, although the snow total for Bismarck was only a little over 9 inches. The total snowfall was well over 3 feet in Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills, and at least 16 inches in Spearfish, SD. In other parts of ND, the snow reached between 12 and 15 inches. Only the eastern edge of the state was spared.

My "snow guy," a service I hired for snow removal because I have asthma and a corner lot, got to my home at about 9:00 p.m. My driveway and sidewalks are cleared down to the layer of ice left by the Thursday morning rain, but I hope that the sun will melt them; the temperature isn't expected to be above freezing in Bismarck until next Wednesday. Meanwhile, North Dakotans have been busy with shovels and snow blowers, and are talking about having a blizzard party the next time around.