Winter storm wallops metro, southern Minnesota with rain, wind and largest snowfall of the season

Residents in the metro area and much of southern Minnesota put their snow blowers and shovels to work Wednesday as they dug out from the season's largest storm that dropped up to a foot of snow in places and took down power lines, closed schools and crippled the morning commute.

Gov. Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency Wednesday and authorized the Minnesota National Guard to provide support for emergency storm operations.

The storm dropped 13 inches of snow in Dennison, about an hour southeast of the Twin Cities, with 11 inches or more reported in Northfield, Elko New Market, Apple Valley, Stillwater and Owatonna, the National Weather Service said.

The official yardstick for the metro area at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport measured 9.5 inches as of midday Wednesday, the Weather Service said. That was the most of the season in the Twin Cities, which previously had been 5.5 inches on Dec. 19.

Some in the Twin Cities were glad to see the snow.

"I love this," said Nam Bang O, as he plowed out of his driveway in Burnsville on Wednesday morning.

"I even went for a walk in this last night," he said.

But for anybody who tried to get around via car, the freshly fallen snow was anything but lovely. Even plows encountered difficulty. Snowdrifts with reduced visibility and whiteout conditions caused by 45-mph winds led to three plows landing in the ditch in southern Minnesota.

"It was quite a storm," said Anne Meyer, a MnDOT spokeswoman.

Motorists didn't fare much better. From 5 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the State Patrol responded to 158 crashes and 236 vehicles that went off the road.

Several hundred Metro Transit buses had begun their morning trips Wednesday, but the agency soon called them back to their garages with roads impassable in some places.

"Buses were running into trouble right away," said spokesman Drew Kerr. "This was an extremely rare occurrence."

Metro Transit suspended bus service for the first time since 2023 and suburban agencies followed suit. But many routes were rolling again by midmorning.

Snow tapered off by early afternoon across the area and many blizzard warnings and winter storm warnings were downgraded to winter weather advisories.

Treacherous conditions led St. Paul Public Schools to call an e-learning day. In Minneapolis, students in kindergarten through fifth grade got the day off for a "severe weather day." Students in grades six through 12 had an e-learning day, the district said.

Minneapolis and St. Paul declared snow emergencies putting into place parking rules that go into effect at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Several other cities including Robbinsdale, Richfield, Osseo, Plymouth, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Crystal, Golden Valley and West St. Paul also called snow emergencies.

About 7,500 Xcel Energy customers lost power at some point during the storm as heavy snow, icing and strong winds took down power lines. Most who lost electricity were in the metro area.

In a bit of irony, even with the all the snow, Welch Village ski area was closed on Wednesday due to a power outage.

For spring lovers, the ground will likely be bare again by early next week. Temperatures in the 30s through Friday will warm into the 40s over the weekend and into the mid 50s early next week, the Weather Service said.