It was an arduous drive for commuters in the south metro this morning as rain and a handful of crashes tangled traffic. The action got started around 7 a.m. in Bloomington with a pair of wrecks on northbound 35W at 110th Street and 98th Street.

Those crashes cleared rather quickly but the log jam never loosened. That led to 30 to 40 minute trips from County 42 into downtown Minneapolis.

Many driver apparently opted for northbound Cedar Avenue, which became clogged just after 7:30 a.m. and remained tight through the rest of the rush. That in turn affected the Crosstown, which was sluggish from 28th Avenue to France Avenue in both directions for last half of the drive.

Westbound 494 crawled during the peak of the rush with 30 minutes needed from Hwy. 61 to 35W.

The north metro suffered in Rogers as traffic lights went on the fritz on Hwy. 101 at Diamond Lake Road. Gridlock conditions developed from County Road 36 to I-94. The problem was fixed around 8 a.m.

Rain slowed traffic on other major routes, and a crash on southbound 35E at County 96 led to a 3-mile back up to Tart Lake Road.

Southbound 494 was plugged from the Fish Lake Interchange to Bass Lake Road where a rollover occurred in the center median just after 7:15 a.m.

At present, traffic on eastbound 94 is jammed in downtown Minneapolis due to a crash at Hiawatha Avenue. Things come to a crawl at the Lowry Hill Tunnel.

We've also got the left lane blocked on southbound Hwy. 100 at Cedar Lake Road. Hwy. 100 was jammed from 94 to the Crosstown much of the morning.