Storm Hits Midwest; Plows Ordered Off Minn. Roads

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

Filed at 9:48 a.m. EST

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Heavy snow and strong winds have created blizzard conditions in parts of South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota as a winter storm barrels through the Upper Midwest.

The storm started Friday in the Rocky Mountains and moved into northern Nebraska and Iowa, southeastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota after midnight, the National Weather Service said. It's expected to spread east into Minnesota's Twin Cities and western Wisconsin later Saturday.

Strong north to northwest winds of 25 to 35 miles per hour, with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, have near whiteout conditions on many roads in eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota, the weather service said.

In Minnesota, transportation officials pulled plows off roads in open areas and told drivers to stay home because of worsening weather in the southern part of the state.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/11/us/AP-US-Winter-Storm-Midwest.html?_r=1&ref=news

[Angry Dragon]

1. Have about a foot so far

still snowing, the winds are pretty brisk

Gotta' love the north

[MedicalAdmin]

8. It all in your perspective

In parts of Canada they wouldn't blink twice at weather like this and they refer to us as the south.

[Angry Dragon]

9. Colorado gets hit harder with snow and they are south

A lot of birds at the feeders today

Pheasants, cardinals, blue birds, squirrels, small song birds
wood peckers

[MedicalAdmin]

10. South, yes.

But also higher elevation and much nearer to the continental divide and trade winds.

[stray cat]

11. Some parts of Canada are South of Minnesota

[myrna minx]

2. It is white out conditions here in Minnesota.

Stay safe everyone.

[MinneapolisMatt]

3. Glad we went grocery shopping yesterday evening.

Here in Minneapolis we must have a foot already with no end until tonight.

If you live in the Twin Cities STAY HOME! Not worth it to go anywhere.

[kickysnana]

4. But not the shopping center parking lots (off I694 and Silver Lake Rd). n/t

[CanSocDem]

20. Private interests have snowplows....

...public interests, like highways, can't afford them.

I sometimes wonder if the store manager, looking out on his or her freshly plowed parking lot understands why it is empty.

.

[kickysnana]

22. Wrong place sorry.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

5. Take care

Settle in and browse DU.

[madmom]

6. Stay safe everyone...and warm!

[Strelnikov_]

7. Good workup here. Could rival the 'big one' for the Cities

http://www.startribune.com/weather/blogs/Paul_Douglas_on_Weather.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1yDEmP:QMDCinchO7DU&elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1yDEmP:QMDCinchO7DU

[MineralMan]

12. I just finished clearing the first 10" off my driveway. This

storm is going to take three separate snow-removal sessions. Uff da!

[Submariner]

13. Those Minnesotans' love this crap

I've heard that if it doesn't snow and freeze up early, they get all testy and stuff about not being able to snowmobile or get their ice fishing shacks out on their thousands of lakes. I heard some Minnesotans' have wide screen TVs in their ice shacks so they can have some football to go with the cold beer and cocktails.

Congrats Minnesota, enjoy your deep freeze. :o

[Odin2005]

15. A few years back we didn't have a snowpack here in Fargo till after New Year's, people were PISSED.

Christmas just does not feel like Christmas without snow.

[dflprincess]

26. That's thanks to Bing Crosby

and I ask, what the hell did he know about a "white Christmas" - he lived in L.A.? :evilgrin:

I've gotten really spoiled by the milder winters we've had - I'm sick of this one already and it doesn't even start for another 10 days.

[Odin2005]

28. Heh, "White Cristmas" is probably my favorite classic Xmas song!

[dflprincess]

29. My mom had moved out California in the fall of 1942 and was staying with her aunt

That was the first Christmas that the song was really popular. She still isn't that fond of it because she remembers how home sick she got whenever she heard it.

It was just after New Year's 1943 that Mom and her aunt stood on her aunt's front step from which they could see Crosby's house burning - a fire ironically caused by Christmas lights. (Mom says she used to see Bing Crosby at Mass most Sundays and that his twins didn't know how to behave in church)

[Odin2005]

14. Blowing and drifting snow here in Fargo, not quite blizzard conditions.

[Brickbat]

16. Nothing here on the North Shore and it's PISSING ME OFF.

I want to go snowshoeing, damnit!

[Thor_MN]

21. Come down to the Twin Cities.

This snow rivals anything I saw growing up with Lake Superior right out my front door. I was just wading through thigh deep snow to pull some of it off the south side of my roof. The snow piles from off the roof next to house are 6 feet high.

[Brickbat]

30. We had one of those a couple years ago...plows were getting lost on Park Point.

[WheelWalker]

17. And another MONSTER

storm is now blowing in off the Pacific that will deliver even more record precip....

http://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2010/12/saturdays_downpour_could_make.html

[pam4water]

18. I never heard of plows ordered off the roads before.

[dflprincess]

27. Weird in the metro area

not so odd in the rural areas. There are gates on the entrance ramps on I-90 in southern Minnesota that look like you see at railroad crossings and they will be brought down to close off the ramps in weather like this to keep people off the interstate.

When the wind starts blowing across the prairie it doesn't take much snow to cause white out conditions.

[indimuse]

19. they say the wind-chill will be below 30 tonight! brrr...

crazy! ;)

[kickysnana]

23. Blizzard is ramping up...

The snow is ending but the snow is loose and the winds are picking up making huge snow drifts in the rear parking lot outside my bedroom window. I expect some cars to be blown over by morning. A reporter covering a fire fatality in a private college area of St Paul had a very red nose, hunched shoulders, faced pinched in the wind because the windchill (as a kid I thought they were saying windshield temperature) is already below zero. They are starting to close roads in the southern part of the state because of drifts. The airport is 90% closed with stranded travelers but Delta is allowing no fees for changing tickets.

Be safe.

[CatholicEdHead]

24. Not just SW MN but now also the Twin Cities metro

That rarely happens.

[Elmore Furth]

25. Upper Midwest pummeled by strengthening blizzard

CNN Wire StaffDecember 11, 2010 8:00 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Much of the upper Midwest battled blizzard conditions Saturday, with a combination of heavy snow, fierce winds and sub-zero temperatures pummeling the region 10 days before the official start of winter.

A blizzard warning, issued by the National Weather Service, stretched from South Dakota to Wisconsin and down to Missouri and Illinois. The storm was expected to dump between 15 and 20 inches of snow in some locales.

"It's looking very frightening," said Amrita Mukherjee of Minneapolis. "It's terrible. Since morning, it's been snowing heavily and the wind is really strong. And each hour, it's getting even worse."

Upper Midwest pummeled by strengthening blizzard