March 15, 2019 - Snow across Wyoming and South Dakota

Snow across Wyoming and South Dakota

Snow has been frequent and heavy across much of the United States in March 2019. As of March 14, three winter storms had rolled from the West Coast to the East Coast, then on March 12 – 13 a major bomb cyclone set low-pressure records in the central plains and spread blizzard conditions from Colorado to North Dakota. Another strong low pressure system brought a swath of moderate to heavy snow from the panhandle of Oklahoma into the Great Lakes region on March 10.

According to the National Weather Service, the March 10 snow totals were heaviest in far northern and northeastern South Dakota, with several locations marking over 6 inches (15.24 cm) of new snow. Strong north to northwest winds carried gusts to 45 mph (72.4 km/h), driving blowing snow and creating large drifts. Far northeastern South Dakota and west-central Minnesota reported near whiteout conditions at times, where visibilities were often below a quarter mile. At the end of the March 10 storm, a surge of cold air wrapped in behind the system, bringing below-zero temperatures accompanied by frigid wind chill values.

On March 11, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of heavy snow blanching the ground after the March 10 storm topped off a snow-filled month. Most of the landforms are obscured by snow and cloud, but the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming (west) and the oval Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota (east).

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 3/11/2019
Resolutions: 1km (126.1 KB), 500m (331.9 KB), 250m (1.2 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC