Snowstorm Dodges Metro Area, Clobbers Southeast Minn.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- One of the bigger snowstorms of the winter season has missed the Twin Cities metro almost entirely, but southern Minnesota residents woke up to a blizzard Friday morning.
The snow started falling late Thursday night, and it added up quickly for some southern Minnesota communities. Mapleton had about a foot of snow by early Friday morning, and Kenyon had 14 inches of snow before noon.
Wabasha has reported 10 inches of snow so far. Spring Park, Lake City and Maiden Rock are reporting 8 or more inches of snow. Blizzard warnings stretch across southern Minnesota and will stay in effect until midnight.
After a stretch where it felt more like spring, we were brought back to winter reality with Friday's blizzard. The storm featured a razor-sharp gradient, cutting northeast across Minnesota south of the cities.
Gallery: Southern Minnesota Blasted By Snow
In addition to large snowfall numbers, wind is making conditions difficult. With winds gusting at up to 45 mph, there are wind chill temperatures in the low-teens and white out conditions with very low visibility in parts of southeast Minnesota, including Faribault, Rochester and Red Wing.
It was a particularly difficult morning in Janesville, where a plow had to be taken out of service after being rear-ended.
"We did have a plow west of Mankato that was hit when a motorist came up behind and rear-ended it. It will take that plow out of service for at least a couple of hours and could prevent us from applying salt the rest of the day," Jed Falgren with MnDOT said.
MnDOT lifted a no-travel advisory for southeastern Minnesota, but officials say road conditions remain challenging.
Over in Owatonna, more than nine inches of heavy snow caused Zoie Pena to be late for work Friday morning.
"As I was trying to pull out I got stuck," she said. "The weather can change so much. Like last week it felt like nicer than our Spring break and now it feels like it's December again. But it's nice, kind of."
According to MnDOT, 101 snowplows worked through the night in southeast Minnesota. Snowplows will continue to work to widen the travel lanes past the shoulders throughout the day, but MnDOT says that more snow is expected and wind speeds remain at more than 20 mph -- causing drifting snow.
In the city of Rochester, homeowners were up early clearing their driveways and sidewalks.
Even after several days of spring-like temperatures, these Minnesotans fell right back into the winter routine.
"If you've lived in Minnesota long enough you always know something like this is possible so there's no complacency here. It can happen at any time," Tim Shea of Rochester said.
"I saw the neighbor up the street going after the big pile in at his driveway so I took pity on him and took the blower over there and dug it out," Pam Eggler of Rochester said.
Rochester is hosting one of the biggest youth girls basketball tournaments in the state this weekend. They're expecting about 260 teams. The tournament will go on as scheduled.
It's also a busy weekend there with high school tournament action. The Section 1A Wrestling Tournament was originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but all action will take place Saturday. Section 1A swimming and diving has also been moved to Saturday.
Motorists can view road conditions on 511mn.org.
In the Twin Cities, expect a high of 32 degrees Friday with temps in the low- to mid-30s for Saturday and Sunday.
