Bemidji gets season's first snowstorm

The Bemidji area on Monday received the first of two significant storm systems expected this week.

As of Monday evening, the National Weather Service had received reports of 8-12 inches of snow in a narrow band from Fargo to Mahnomen to Bemidji, with the snowfall lessening from Bagley to Bemidji.

Nine inches of snow had fallen in the Blackduck area as of 3:41 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service had expected accumulation to total 2-10 inches in the region, with accumulation of 2-5 inches being most common.

Snow was expected to continue until about 9 p.m.

No snow was expected Tuesday, but a second snowstorm is expected in the area Wednesday, according to a press release from the Beltrami County Office of Emergency Management.

The forthcoming snow is expected to be coupled with winds and could make holiday travel difficult, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Management and the National Weather Service.

The Monday storm dumped more than a foot of snow on parts of southeastern North Dakota and west-central Minnesota.

A winter storm watch was in effect from Wednesday morning through Thanksgiving afternoon for all of eastern North Dakota and much of northwestern and west-central Minnesota.

The Fargo-Moorhead area was "bulls-eyed" by Monday's storm, a narrow band of snow that stretched southwest to northeast from Aberdeen, S.D., to Bemidji, weather service meteorologist Jim Kaiser said.