St. Paul plows are out; no emergency

The city of St. Paul is asking drivers to avoid parking on east-west residential streets Wednesday to make room for snowplowing.

The city isn't declaring a snow emergency -- its standard approach to heavy snowfall. Instead, normal parking rules apply, and cars won't be ticketed if they're in the way of the plows. But the city wants residents to move their cars to accommodate plows anyway, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. today.

Six inches of snow has piled up in the last five days in St. Paul. That's more than the National Weather Service recorded for the Twin Cities for the entire month of January, when just 4.6 inches fell on the Twin Cities.

The city of St. Paul says the total accumulation has piled up in parking areas and on medians, without enough at one time to warrant a snow emergency.

St. Paul will follow up today's plowing with work on north-south residential streets tomorrow. Visit the city's snow plowing website for more information.