Take it easy on the roads this morning. Enough snow fell overnight to make morning commute times long, messy and slow. By 5 a.m. Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Transportation had posted several notices about difficult driving conditions across the Twin Cities and central Minnesota created by snow and slippery roadways. As of 6 a.m., snowfall totals in the Twin Cities ranged from an under an inch to 2.5 inches at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, according to the National Weather Service. Chanhassen received 1.9 inches and St. Cloud reported 2.2 inches. But Foley, Minn., 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis, registered more than three inches of snow before sunrise in some areas. At 5 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature hovered at 28 degrees for Minneapolis and St. Paul, but a frigid 11 below in Ely. Temperatures are going to dip throughout the day in the Twin Cities – down to the teens this afternoon and below zero Tuesday night. The snow is expected to taper off this morning. Winds will then pick up this afternoon and make blowing snow a potential hazard for drivers. At 4 a.m. Tuesday, the weather service reported winds gusting up to 50 mph in western Minnesota. The strongest gusts today are expected over west central and south central Minnesota.
