Lake effect snow in Fargo? When you think about lake effect snow, almost everyone thinks about areas near one of the five great lakes. But this time of year, when the wind is blowing from the north, lake effect snow does come off of both Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba (and the other numerous bodies of water north of that lake).
Given the right wind trajectory, the clouds and sometimes very light snow or flurries will stream off those lakes all the way to Fargo. A few years back around one-half inch fell in the metro from a narrow stream of clouds from Lake Manitoba. The clouds on Monday with the flurries was largely attributed to this phenomenon. Other lakes in our area also have a brief snow effect season.
Baudette, Minnesota will sometimes record several inches of snow from Lake of the Woods and areas near Devils Lake and the Red Lakes will also on occasion record flurries or light snow under the right conditions.
These lakes will freeze over soon putting an quick end to this, but the lake effect snows off the great lakes usually last the entire winter as most of those lakes never completely freeze over.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of the event.