I used to have pictures of our locomotives with snow up to there roof from North Dakota. There were "cuts" that they went through that would fill up with snow. North Dakota is not all prairie.
The elevation difference in North Dakota is 2,800ft (from lowest point to highest point in the state). While North Dakota might not be as flat as Saskatchewan, it’s not a mountainous state. The photo you posted above was taken near the Rogers Pass in British Columbia. The average annual snowfall in the Rogers Pass is 30’.
It appears that the record snowfall for North Dakota was around 28” so perhaps in some areas where the wind was blowing it might have doubled to 4’. An AC4400 is just over 15’ tall so it would have to be the mother of all snow drifts to reach 14 or 15’ in North Dakota!
