Winter Storm Shutting Everything Down In North Dakota; Likely That We Won't See Updates From NDIC Tomorrow; Bismarck Will Be Shut Down Tonight; April 26, 1994: 8 Inches Snow in Bismarck; This Weekend: 16 Inches (So Far)

Updates

April 15, 2013: not sure of the exact time when these totals were provided, but this was seen Monday morning:

• Bismarck: 23.5 inches
• Glen Ullin: 18 inches
• Strasburg: 16 inches
• Garrison: 14 inches
  

Original Post

Dynamic link. Posted at 8:36 EST; 7:36 CST in Bismarck.

Interstate 94 is closed across the entire state, from the Montana state line to Fargo. ND Highway 83 connecting Bismarck with Minot is closed from Bismarck, north to the river, nearly to Garrison, ND.

I-29 is closed from Fargo north to Grand Forks.

The highway patrol can easily close the interstates; it's a bit more difficult to close the state highways; locals and farmers are pretty independent up there. So, north and south of I-94 no travel is advised but roads are not closed or blocked.

Snow depths released by National Weather Service in Bismarck at 7 p.m. on Sunday, reported by The Bismarck Tribune:

• Bismarck 15.8 inches
• Strasburg 16 inches
• Sterling 15 inches
• Dickinson 16 inches
• Hazelton 16.1 inches
• Ashley 14 inches
• Hazen 11.2 inches
• Mandan 15 inches

So, 16 inches in Bismarck in April. How does that stack up with days gone by? From wiki:

The climate of Bismarck tends to be dry, with yearly precipitation averaging only 16.8 inches (427 mm).

The 1990s were a very moist period for Bismarck. The earlier part of the decade was documented for heavy snowfall as the snowiest winter on record in Bismarck was the winter of 1993-94, when 91.7 inches (233 cm) of snow fell, including a late-season 8.5 inches (22 cm) snowfall on April 26, 1994.

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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, The Baseballs