North Shore digs out from more than 3 feet of wind-whipped snow; difficult morning drive in Twin Cities
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Parts of the North Shore are digging out from more than 3 feet of wind-whipped snow Thursday, in the wake of a blizzard that pummeled northeast Minnesota on Wednesday.
And for the Twin Cities, a band of snow that swept into the metro area during the Wednesday afternoon commute lingered overnight into Thursday morning, leading to a challenging morning drive.
Some school districts across the state delayed the start of classes on Thursday because of the difficult travel conditions. Find a complete list below.
The State Patrol reported more than 750 spinouts and crashes on highways across Minnesota on Wednesday, along with 22 jackknifed semis. Crews were busy responding to more crashes on Thursday morning.
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The champion snow total, as reported by the National Weather Service, was Hovland in Cook County, where a weather spotter reported 38.6 inches as of Thursday morning. That included 8 inches that fell in just three hours on Wednesday afternoon.
Other snow totals along the North Shore included 28.4 inches at Finland, 24.2 inches near Lutsen, 20 inches near Little Marais and 16.7 inches near Brimson. Spotters reported as much as 9 to 10 inches near Hibbing and Chisholm, and the official total at the Duluth airport as of Wednesday night was 7.6 inches.
Duluth saw winds gusting to more than 60 miles per hour for much of Wednesday morning.
In the Twin Cities, spotters reported more than a half-foot of snow in the south metro from the band of snow that moved through during the afternoon and evening and stuck around all night, with lesser amounts in the north metro.
The official total at the Twin Cities airport as of Thursday morning was 7.6 inches — the biggest snowfall of the winter so far.
The city of St. Paul has declared a snow emergency starting at 9 p.m. Thursday, with special parking restrictions over several days to help plow crews fully clear streets.
At last report, the city of Minneapolis had not imposed snow emergency parking rules for this storm.
Find forecast updates on MPR Weather’s Updraft blog.
School changes for Thursday, Feb. 19
Check for updates from your local school district about the status of classes.
Closed
Cook County
E-learning day
Ortonville
Two-hour delay
Alexandria
Annandale
Ashby
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
Battle Lake
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa
Belle Plaine
Benson
BOLD
Brandon-Evansville
Breckenridge
Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart
Cedar Mountain
Central (Norwood Young America)
Dassel-Cokato
Delano
Eden Valley-Watkins
Esko
Fergus Falls
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop
Hermantown
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
Hutchinson
Jordan
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
Kimball Area
Lake Superior College — opening at 10 a.m.
Lakeview
Le Sueur-Henderson
Lester Prairie
Litchfield
Maple Lake
Melrose Area
Minnewaska Area
Morris Area
New London-Spicer
New Ulm
Osakis
Paynesville Area
Pelican Rapids
Proctor
Red Rock Central
Renville County West
Rocori
Rothsay
Sauk Centre
Sibley East
Sleepy Eye
Springfield
Underwood
Wabasso
Waconia
Watertown-Mayer
West Central Area
Westonka
Wheaton
Willmar
Yellow Medicine East
Forecast updates
MPR News: Real-time radar
National Weather Service: Snowfall reports
Travel updates
These state transportation departments offer live updates on road conditions and crashes:
For bus and light rail riders in the Twin Cities, Metro Transit offers weather-related updates on its Metro Transit and Metro Transit Alerts social media pages, as well as on its website.
Is there is snow emergency in effect for St. Paul or Minneapolis? Find out on the City of St. Paul website or the City of Minneapolis website.
Flight updates
If you’re planning to fly from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport or another airport around the region — or if you are expecting visitors to arrive by plane — airports offer flight status updates online:
