Feb 25, 2012; 11:09 AM ET
Two snowstorms will pound the northern Plains over the next five days, bringing heavy snows and gusty winds to many areas.
The first snowstorm will streak out from the northern Rockies tonight into Sunday. As Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski pointed out, "The northern Plains of the U.S. and the southern Prairies of Canada have not seen a great number of storms overall this winter, with many taking the trip toward Denver."
This storm system will bring some snow to the northern Rockies into tonight, producing up to a foot of new snow over the Bitterroots of Montana and the higher elevations of northern Idaho. Even cities such as Butte, Mont., and Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., could see a few inches of the white stuff.
Farther to the east, snow will begin to streak eastward tonight from southern Saskatchewan and eastern Montana into North Dakota, Minnesota, southern Manitoba and northern South Dakota.
The snow will fall steadily through much of the night, accumulating a general 1-3 inches across this region. There will be more of a bull's-eye in turns of snowfall, however. That lies farther north and west from northwestern North Dakota through southern Saskatchewan.
Cities such as Regina, Saskatchewan, and Williston, N.D., will be in a zone of 3-6 inch accumulations.
Farther to the east, snow will break out very late tonight across northern and central Minnesota before spreading into northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the day on Sunday.
A stripe of 1- to 3-inch accumulations will extend through cities like Bemidji and Duluth, Minn., along with Rhinelander, Wis., and Marquette, Mich. International Falls, Minn., and Thunder Bay, Ontario, could pick up nearly a half of a foot of snow by the time all is said and done.
Travel will become tricky tonight and Sunday across interstates 29, 94, 35 and 75. Watch for detours or delays around potential car accidents.
Not only will the snow make for hazardous travel, but significant wind gusts will create areas of blowing and drifting snow.
Visibility can be reduced to below a quarter of a mile at times in the heaviest snow as winds gust to between 30 and 40 mph during the heart of the storm.
Next Storm Monday Night into Tuesday
As mentioned above, this won't be the only snowstorm to affect the northern Plains over the next few days.
Another low pressure system will across the Four Corners region on Monday before ejecting into the Plains Monday night. This low pressure center will end up farther south than the one tonight into Sunday, therefore sparing communities and cities near the Canadian border and southern Canada from additional heavy snows.
This storm will produce heavy snows across the Wasatch Range in Utah and the Colorado Rockies Monday night with local amounts of a foot or more possible.
Steady snow will then develop on the northern side of this storm from Wyoming through South Dakota and Minnesota late Monday night into Tuesday.
A zone of heavy, wind-driven snow will affect cities from Duluth and Brainerd, Minn., through Pierre and Rapid City, S.D.
Snowfall totals in excess of 6 inches appear likely at this time across the region mentioned above, along with near-blizzard conditions.
Stay tuned to AccuWeather.com over the next few days as we detail both bouts of snow coming for the northern Plains.
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