BISMARCK, N.D. — The snow may have stopped falling, but Blizzard Warnings stretched into their fourth day across the Northern Plains as relentless winds whipped around piles of snow measured in feet in many places, dropping visibilities near zero.
Blizzard Warnings stretched from eastern Montana into much of the Dakotas, northern Nebraska, and the northeastern corner of Wyoming Friday.
Winds were gusting up to 50-60 mph gusts in the warning areas — for some areas, they will feel the strongest winds of the four-day event.
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The wind will also ensure it will be the fourth straight day when travel will be exceptionally difficult to impossible.
In South Dakota, hundreds of miles of Interstate 90 remained closed due to drifting snow and high winds, though the highway was open just within the Rapid City area for local travel.
Interstate 29 was closed from Watertown to the North Dakota border as “the combination of newly developing snow and sustained winds has made I-29 impassable,” according to the South Dakota Department of Transportation.
In North Dakota, just about all highways were closed, including much of Interstate 94, from blowing snow.
Scattered power outages will also be possible, and any livestock left out in the elements, where temperatures in the wake of the snowstorms have plunged into the teens and will continue to drop over the weekend, may struggle to survive.
The low pressure, which has been the culprit for this week’s blizzard, hasn’t moved much, but finally, that will begin to change on Friday, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
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Blizzard Warnings are set to expire Friday afternoon as the low will slowly spin across Minnesota and Wisconsin before moving over to Michigan Friday night. Snow showers will continue to rotate around the low.
Light snow will generally result, but brief bouts of moderate-to-heavy snow are possible.
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Most of the accumulation is over with this system, but there still could be some travel impacts from 1 to 3 inches of additional snow through Saturday.