No snow, only rain fell in the Fargo-Moorhead area Monday, while places at higher elevations such as Bowman and Hettinger, N.D., got dumped on with heavy snow. The reason is not so much the elevation as it is the slope of the land.
The highest elevations in North Dakota are in the southwest, and the lowest are along the Red River. So an east or northeast wind is essentially blowing uphill. At higher elevations, the air has a lower density. So as the air rises, it is cooled by several degrees as its density is lowered.
Oftentimes in the fall, this is just enough of a temperature drop to turn rain into snow. The Fargo-Moorhead area can get snowed on in October, but it requires a weather system with colder air.
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