Travel still tough as snow continues to fall, but the end is in sight

Winter's late arrival in the Twin Cities and across much of Minnesota held its grip on the state for a third straight day Tuesday, leading some schools to close and making for white-knuckle driving for motorists who ventured out on icy and snow-covered roads.

By midday, traffic crept along on Twin Cities freeways still littered with a rash of crashes and spin-outs that started during the morning commute as rain with a little sleet tossed in turned to snow and the mishaps continued throughout the day.

"Winter weather is not leaving us yet," said Anne Meyer, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. "It's tricky for travel, messy right now, but it's going to get better."

Things may get a bit worse before the sun comes out on Wednesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brennan Dittman. Winds were expected to pick up Tuesday afternoon and blow around the 1 to 3 inches of fluffy snow that has already fallen by noon, maintaining the prospect for a rough afternoon and evening commute as visibilities drop.

New Hope called a snow emergency going into effect at 2 a.m. Wednesday to give crews a chance to clear away several inches of snow that fell on back-to-back days. Other cities could follow its lead. But neither Minneapolis nor St. Paul had called a snow emergency as of noon Tuesday.

The State Patrol has several emergencies of its own to respond to. In the 24-hour period that ended at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the State Patrol had responded to 158 crashes and 138 spinouts across the state. Another 15 semi-trailer trucks jackknifed, the patrol said.

At noon, troopers and tow trucks were on the scene of more than 20 incidents, including a trio of crashes and spin-outs on I-35W between the Minnesota River and I-494 in Bloomington, the Minnesota Department of Transportation traffic cameras showed.

Monday's rain prevented MnDOT from pretreating the roads, allowing for the rapid onset of slick conditions as temperatures dipped, Meyer said.

"We saw everything out there, and what each version of precipitation does to the roads," Meyer said.

Side streets and lesser-traveled roads were not faring much better than highways. Metro Transit said 40% of buses were running behind schedule at 11:45 a.m. The average delay was 7 minutes.

Operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were hampered a bit, too. By noon, 156 flights leaving the Twin Cities had been delayed, but none canceled, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com.

Students in dozens of districts were told to stay home. Minneapolis called off all after-school activities and in-person and online adult education classes on Tuesday. In St. Paul, the district scrubbed after-school activities.

A winter weather advisory remained in effect for the Twin Cities and central Minnesota until Tuesday afternoon, while a storm warning continued in northern Minnesota where more than 6 inches of snow was expected.

The storm that has delivered almost as much snow to the metro in three days as had fallen all season was slowly wrapping up. A low pressure system lifting into Canada will allow skies to clear and bring peeks of sun Wednesday, Dittmann said.

But with that "it's going to feel pretty cold," he said. Temperatures will make it feel more like January as they fall through the 20s to a low of 11 degrees by Wednesday night.

In St. Cloud, another 2 to 6 inches of snow was expected Tuesday. Similar amounts were expected in Brainerd, Hibbing, Duluth and along the North Shore, the weather service said.

More rain and snow is possible the rest of the week, but high temperatures will moderate into the 40s Friday through Monday. Thermometers might surpass 50 degrees by the end of next week.

"We need the moisture, and hopefully it will kickstart the blooming and growing season," Dittmann said.