Mother Nature seems to have a momentary identity crisis, forgetting whether to send the weather for spring or winter.

While the calendar and the groundhog agree that winter remains, drops of rain began falling Sunday night around the state and didn't stop until rainfall records had been set in cities across central North Dakota. But the forecast predicts that snowflakes, instead of flowers, may follow early February showers, indicating that spring has not yet sprung.

In Bismarck, .23 inches of rain fell Sunday night in Bismarck, breaking a daily record of .12 set in 1926. Jamestown received .19 inches Sunday, breaking a 1974 daily record of .18. Minot broke a rainfall record Monday, with .21 inches falling by 6:46 a.m., breaking a 1979 record of .14 inches.

While western and central North Dakota were wet, eastern parts of the state were slippery.

In northeastern North Dakota, Walsh County Sheriff Lauren Wild said a stretch of state Highway 17 between Grafton and Park River looked like a wrecking yard Monday morning. The sheriff said his SUV slid in the ditch about 5:30 a.m., and he was stuck for nearly four hours.

"What happened here on (Highway) 17 was the curves, the embankment," Wild said. "The cars just simply slid right off the road … and at one time, I'm sure we had close to 30 cars up here, either in the ditch or not able to move on the ice and just slid off the roadway like I did."

In the Grand Forks area, travel speeds were down to less than 15 mph Monday morning.

Highway Patrol Sgt. Dolf Oldenburg said one of the toughest stretches of road was along U.S. 2 near Arvilla. He said he had reports of two miles of semis on the shoulder of Interstate 29 going north, stuck because of the ice.

"Three semis tipped over. Three snowplows slid into the ditch," Oldenburg said. "A wrecker slid into the ditch. A couple of cars."

Grand Forks police reported only a handful of accidents in the city but said they got several calls about people falling on the ice.

Rain, mist and fog shrouded Bismarck most of Monday, but National Weather Meteorologist Nathan Heinert said the rain was expected to turn to snow by late Monday evening. Heinert expects the snow to continue until tonight, leaving between 6 and 10 inches of white stuff on the ground. North central parts of the state are expected to get 8 to 12 inches, Heinert said.

By Wednesday afternoon, the storms are expected to clear out, leaving "seasonal temperatures" in their wakes, Heinert said. He said highs for Bismarck should be in the upper teens and 20s by Thursday and Friday, with lows in the single digits below zero at the coldest.

Though the previously forecasted freezing rain didn't hit the Bismarck area, Heinert said the snow likely will cause problems of its own.

"The snow is going to cause some travel headaches,"Heinert said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)