The sun may make an appearance Tuesday in and around the Twin Cities, but higher temperatures won't be anywhere in sight until at least Sunday.
Arctic air from Canada is again filtering south, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Monday night, with low temperatures over the next five days ranging from about 4 below to 12 below. That's actual temperature; windchills will be in the range of 15 to 25 below.
Southwestern Minnesota took the brunt of the nasty weather Monday. Sustained winds of up to 52 miles per hour caused blizzard-like conditions with blowing snow and forced some roads to close temporarily.
A blizzard warning for southern and southwestern Minnesota originally set to expire at noon Monday was extended until 6 p.m., and a winter weather advisory continued until midnight, the NWS said.
Between 12:01 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday, the State Patrol responded to 20 crashes, 31 stalled vehicles and 145 vehicles that had gone into the ditch in its southwestern district, which covers 13 counties.
The patrol responded to another seven crashes and 43 vehicles that slid off the road in its Mankato district, as well as nine crashes and 25 vehicles off the road in its Rochester district.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation shut down Interstate 90 from Jackson to Worthington around 8 a.m. Monday.
At 1:30 p.m., the freeway and a number of state highways remained closed in the blizzard warning area, which ran south and west of a line from Marshall to Redwood Falls to Mankato to Albert Lea. The roads all reopened when winds diminished by 6 p.m.
