Crews clearing snow in Minn., but MnDOT urges driver caution
The snow stopped on Monday, but plows are still trying to clear roads in the southern half of Minnesota.
By the end of the storm, about 12.5 inches fell in the Twin Cities metro area and close to 20 inches in some areas of the state.
MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said road conditions in the Twin Cities have improved, but there are still slippery spots. He said conditions are a little worse in parts of greater Minnesota.
"In pretty much the southern half of the state they're varying between difficult driving and fair driving conditions," Gutknecht said. "South-central, the Mankato region and south -- difficult driving conditions. There's snow on the road, there's packed snow, there's blowing snow and drifting. So we're continuing to work on that. We're out moving snow, taking care of the drifts, putting chemicals down, putting sand down."
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MnDOT is asking people to slow down and allow plow drivers to do their work.
"Right now we've got scattered slippery spots, I mean you can be going along and have 3-4 miles of dry pavement and then you're going to come up to a spot of what we call blow ice," said Denny Marty, a MnDOT plow supervisor in the Willmar area. "It's where the wind has been sifting the snow across, it melted and now it's just a sheet of ice on the road."
Willmar also received more than a foot of snow. Road conditions appear to be worse southwest of the Twin Cities near Mankato. A MnDOT spokeswoman in that area said roads are still compacted with snow, causing crashes and spinouts during the morning rush.
MnDOT has rated road travel "difficult" in the middle part of the state -- all the way from the Interstate 90 corridor north to the St. Cloud area.
