The winter season - Northern Great Plains

This winter was hardly a winter by usual standards. At Grand Forks six record highs were set in February, a month which averaged 11°F above normal, and a -20° reading was not recorded the entire season for the first time in 50 years. Fort Peck Lake in Montana finally iced over February 12, only to begin reopening three days later (CMC). Temperatures reached into the 70s in South Dakota and that state was "powdery dry" as a result of the driest weather in 37 years (EMS, DLB). Across the Region, snow cover was either absent or inconsequential.