Double-barreled winter storm hitting Minnesota on cusp of Christmas weekend

Nick Woltman, Pioneer Press
Updated ·4 min read

A powerful winter storm is expected to dump up to 8 inches of new snow on the Twin Cities by Thursday morning and create dangerous travel conditions heading into the holiday weekend.

The snowfall began early Wednesday and continued throughout the day, prompting St. Paul and Minneapolis to declare snow emergencies and several metro area school districts to cancel Thursday classes and in-person activities.

The precipitation also made for dicey driving conditions, with the State Patrol reporting 202 crashes on Minnesota roads by 4:30 p.m., including 16 with injuries, although none was serious or fatal.

The snow is expected to taper off overnight as a winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service expires in the Twin Cities at 3 a.m., but conditions are expected to deteriorate again late Thursday afternoon, as winds pick up and temperatures drop. A second winter storm warning will take effect at 6 p.m. Thursday and expire at 6 a.m. Saturday, Christmas Eve Day.

“That high wind with all this fresh snow will create what’s called a ground blizzard,” said Nick Carletta, an NWS meteorologist in Chanhassen. “That’s what will to lead to the bulk of the difficult travel and whiteout conditions. And when we’re talking about wind chills that are probably going to be negative 35 or colder, if you do get stuck it’s not going to be very comfortable while you’re waiting for rescue.”

Roads will be even more dangerous in southwestern Minnesota, where winds are expected to gust up to 50 mph over the region’s flat, open terrain. The NWS has issued a blizzard warning for several counties to the south and west of the Twin Cities.

“If you can postpone travel or reschedule it for another time, that’s the best thing to do for a winter storm like this,” Carletta said.

The wind will gradually die down on Saturday, making driving conditions safer, he added.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation said it had deployed 800 snowplows and 1,600 operators statewide. Still, the frigid conditions render chemicals less effective, and whiteout conditions can’t be minimized by MnDOT crews.

For details on road conditions around the state, including live views from select MnDOT plows, go to 511mn.org.

The storm is also likely to affect air travel. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is asking passengers to use the flight tracker tool at www.mspairport.com for updates. On Wednesday, some two dozens flights were canceled and nearly 390 were delayed.

Cancellations and closings

Although some area school districts — including St. Paul and Minneapolis — are already on winter break, many canceled in person activities and athletics that were scheduled for Thursday.

St. Paul Public Schools canceled all athletic practices and games. All Discovery Club locations will be closed. Minneapolis Public Schools canceled all in-person activities, athletics and early childhood programs.

Several other districts, including North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale and Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, canceled classes because of the weather.

The University of Minnesota also announced that the Twin Cities campus would reduce operations Thursday through Saturday.

Local television stations, such as WCCO-TV, offer more complete listings of school cancellations and early closings.

Meanwhile, St. Paul public libraries will close at 5 p.m. Thursday and the Bookmobile route has been canceled.

Forecast through next week

High temperatures in the Twin Cities are expected remain in the single digits through the holiday weekend, with wind chills plummeting as low as minus 26 on Thursday and minus 32 on Friday, according to the NWS. Although widespread blowing snow is expected, no new precipitation is forecast.

Conditions will likely improve throughout Saturday and remain clear until Christmas Day, when forecasters predict a 20 percent chance of snow.

Temperatures are expected to climb steadily early next week, with a high of 10 degrees on Monday, 22 on Tuesday and 29 on Wednesday.

More snowfall is possible later next week, adding to already above-average precipitation levels for December, Carletta said.

And although it may be wreaking havoc on Minnesotans’ holiday plans, all this snow will likely help the ease the drought conditions the state has seen the past couple of years.

“The more snow we can pile up this winter, that will kind of help remoisten the ground as everything melts off,” Carletta said. “If you’re trying to find the silver lining in a big winter storm right before Christmas.”

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