Snow tapering off in metro; still falling across SE Minn.

Wet heavy snow arrived in the metro area in the predawn hours Wednesday, turning mainline roads wet, slushy and slick while covering side streets and lawns with a fresh blanket of white.

It was not a major dumping — with places in the far north metro getting less than an inch while Burnsville in the south picked up 3.3 inches — but it was enough to cause several crashes and spinouts on highways and freeways and bring Wednesday morning traffic to a crawl.

Between midnight and 11 a.m., the State Patrol responded to 67 crashes and 35 spinouts in the metro area, including a rollover that briefly had the ramp from eastbound I-494 to northbound I-35E closed and a multivehicle crash that blocked the southbound lanes of I-35W at 50th Street in Minneapolis for about 30 minutes.

Statewide the patrol handled 113 crashes and 116 spin outs.

At the peak of the rush hour, about a third of Metro Transit buses were running behind schedule, but were back on time by midmorning, the agency said. There were no significant delays on commuter or light-rail trains.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation dispatched 176 plows in the metro area to clear roads.

While the storm delivered a grazing blow to the Twin Cities, conditions deteriorated rapidly across southern Minnesota, where up to a foot of snow was forecast to fall across the I-90 corridor by the time things wind down Wednesday night. Snow-covered roads and gusting winds were causing drifting and hampering visibility across southern Minnesota, MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht said.

Travel conditions were expected to remain tough for most of Wednesday in southeastern Minnesota, where MnDOT dispatched 101 plows overnight to keep roads clear. But snow was falling so fast that it quickly covered their work. Roads were completely snow-covered across southeast Minnesota and in the Mankato, New Ulm, Windom and Worthington areas, MnDOT said.

MnDOT pleaded with drivers to give plows room to work.

"We've had more than 30 crashes involving plows so far this year," Gutknecht said.

Snow was wrapping up in the metro area by early afternoon. One to 3 inches of snow was common in the south metro area along a line from Shakopee to Richfield to Hastings and into western Wisconsin.

By noon, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport had picked up 2.2 inches of snow, while 2.7 inches piled up on Edina and 3 inches fell in Prior Lake and Rosemount, the weather service said.

Other totals included 8.6 inches in Rochester, 8 inches in Geneva, 7 inches in Albert Lea, 6 inches in Fairmont, 5 inches in Minnesota Lake, 4.5 in Mankato, and 4 inches in Waseca, Zumbrota and Springfield.

A winter storm warning for 6 to 12 inches of snow remained in effect Wednesday for southern Minnesota.

Winter's return prompted some schools such as Kasson-Mantorville, Pine Island, Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Owatonna, Rochester and St. James to cancel classes for Wednesday. Others such as Cedar Mountain, Hayfield, Mankato, Mountain Lake, Sibley East, St. Clair, Tracy, St. Peter and Fairmont opened late.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768