John Wheeler: The winter of '96-'97 started on this date

On this date in 1996, the first of eight severe blizzards buried the Red River Valley and surrounding region in what would become the epic winter and flood of 1997. On that Saturday night into Sunday of Nov. 16-17, Fargo was buried under 13 inches and Grand Forks received 6 inches of snow.

Drifts were several feet high. Then another six-inch snow fell three days later and we were off to the races. Fargo ended up with a record 117 inches of snow that winter.



Grand Forks recorded 96 inches. As the spring melt and runoff began the first week in April, the region was hit by the most vicious storm of the winter featuring heavy rain, which turned to freezing rain and, eventually, one last severe blizzard. It is interesting to note that the Fargo area received more snow than Grand Forks, but the Grand Forks region got the worst of the flood, which illustrates that the number of inches of winter snow is a poor indicator of the severity of the spring flood.

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