May snow 18 inches: A storm that covered much of the Midwest may have broke the May snowfall record after 18 inches were dumped in a Minnesota town.
Twincities.com reported that 18 inches fell on Blooming Prairie this week, while more than a foot of snow fell over southeastern Minnesota, central Wisconsin, and northern Iowa. A few other cities saw more than 15 inches of snow.
“The northernmost areas have seen snow in May before, but not of this magnitude,” Jim Keeney, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, told Reuters.
Keeney said that the snow was heavy and wet, causing power outages, downed trees, and road closures.
“It was probably the sharpest cutoff from heavy snow to nothing that you will ever see besides like in the mountains,” said Chris Franks, with the National Weather Service, told the Minneapolis Star-Trbiune. He added the snow was “three to four times their all-time May record.”
“For perspective, the Twin Cities record for a May snow event is 3 inches,” Franks added. “This absolutely was a historic storm.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation said that travel in much of southeastern Minnesota is not advised, reported USA Today.
The same storm system also dumped 18 inches in Larimer County in Colorado.
