FARGO – Rob Geigle thinks there’s something deeply wrong when a foot of snow falls on Amarillo, Texas, and Fargo gets barely a sprinkle.
“We’ve got like, what, 3 inches all year so far?” said Geigle, 51, as he looked out a window at the Fargo Public Library. “Very depressing. We live in North Dakota. We’re supposed to have snow. Not Texas.”
In fact, snowfall in the metro area is so paltry it’s on track to break a 71-year-old record.
In 1944, Fargo-Moorhead had to wait until Jan. 27 before seeing its first 1-inch snowfall of the winter. So far this winter, no single snowfall has produced an inch or more, putting the record in jeopardy with just a few days to go.
“Right now, we’re in second place,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Riddle.
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But any chance of breaking the record this year could be dashed tonight by a snow system headed toward the metro, Riddle said. He forecasts it will unload an inch or 2 of snow.
WDAY Chief Meteorologist John Wheeler, on the other hand, said the Saturday night snowfall looks fairly meager, with most of the snow falling east of the metro. That doesn’t mean the record will necessarily be broken.
“An inch of snow is not very much,” said Wheeler, adding that another snowfall is possible Monday. “It’s possible for a snow shower to form unexpectedly.”
Total snowfall this winter has been low, but isn’t likely to break any records. Only 7.3 inches of snow has fallen on Fargo-Moorhead this winter, compared to the average of 28.8, Wheeler said.
The lack of snow comes down to “luck more than anything else,” Riddle said. Air has mainly been flowing from British Columbia down across the northern Plains, bringing in lighter snow.
“The few storms that have managed to move through our area have not been heavy anyway,” Wheeler said. “Fargo has just missed everything.”
Snow-wise, things are not as scant as they were in the winter of 1957-58. A total of 9.3 inches fell that winter, the lowest in recorded history.
The most snow to fall in Fargo-Moorhead was during the winter of 1996-97 when 117 inches were recorded.
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