The first sign that the brutal conditions that have tangled traffic for hours is showing up in the far north and south metro.

Traffic volumes are dropping on Hwy. 610 in Brooklyn Park, southbound 35W from the Forest Lake Split down to about Hwy. 10 and on northbound 35 through Lakeville into Burnsville.

With the extra room on the roads, we are seeing an increase in spin outs and vehicles going off the roads. AN example is southbound 35E at County 14 in the Hugo area.

But things have not improved much on roads in the center cities and those just outside the 694/494 loop.

Westbound 94 is tight from Woodbury Drive into downtown St. Paul and over into Minneapolis. Crosstown and 494 in Bloomington and Edina still have pockets of slow and go traffic.

Eastbound 394 is still creeping along from General Mills Blvd to downtown Minneapolis. Rates for the HOT lane have dropped to $5.

Southbound 94 and northbound 35W into downtown Minneapolis are still jammed.