Area hit by early storm
By ALLAN TINKER
In a storm that everyone hoped would "just miss," the central Dakota area got hammered this past week. First the rain on Wednesday, Nov. 3, started, and then temperatures dropped and the wind picked up. On Thursday, Nov. 4, about noon, visibility rapidly dropped and snow fell, and fell, and fell. By Friday, the western half of North Dakota had changed its face, save for the Williston area. The area had partially been in a storm warning for the lower western quarter with just a storm watch for the upper quarter. The storm paid no attention to the forecasts. Highways were glazed ice with high drifts in downwind areas; rural roads were blocked in places. Travel was restricted and most schools were closed, as well as some businesses. Wires and metal buildings were coated with frost layers; trees and shrubbery bent under their load of ice also. Cattle that had not been brought in were huddled in whatever shelter they had found for the storm, also coated in ice and snow. Some farmers complained that the ones that had come in were eating twice the usual amount, crediting the high winds and energy loss for their appetite.
