Rounds of snow are making travel hazardous throughout Minnesota

There's a winter weather advisory in effect through Saturday night along and north of Interstate 94 through Minnesota as an Alberta clipper hits the state. Two rounds of snow are expected, the National Weather Service said, with one round moving through Minnesota and Wisconsin Saturday afternoon and another Saturday evening and overnight.

Multiple accidents have been reported since late Thursday, when a storm moved into the state, leaving roads icy early Saturday. Officials urge caution while driving, with slippery roads and reduced visibility expected Saturday and overnight.

Total snow accumulations will range from 2 to 4 inches along and north of I-94, with less in the south. The weekend will remain cool, white and windswept.

It's likely the Twin Cities, specifically the northeast metro, will see an accumulation of snow, said Nick Carletta, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

"Any not-as-regularly maintained roadways could have some ice form from melted snow on it" this morning, he said.

The new snow comes without the freezing cold gusts that swept up the state Thursday and Friday.

St. Cloud and Chanhassen recorded their first measurable snow of the year Friday with 0.5 and 0.2 inches, respectively. Farther east, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Eau Claire, Wis., had yet to see measurable accumulations as of Friday evening.

Farther north, the system dropped 6.8 inches near Orr, in northeastern Minnesota and 4.5 inches near International Falls, the weather service said.

Strong winds made it a blustery Friday across the state, said weather service meteorologist Chris O'Brien. Gusts of 50 mph or stronger were recorded across western Minnesota, where a blizzard warning was in effect for Traverse and Big Stone counties in Minnesota and adjacent counties in South Dakota.

November blizzards are not uncommon.

Thursday's arrived on one of the most notorious Nov. 11 storms of all, the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940. In that storm, more than 27 inches of snow fell in Collegeville, Minn., and 16 in the Twin Cities. It took days for the roads to be cleared, and some side roads were not open for traffic until closer to the end of the month, according to an account from the Minnesota Climatology Office.

No repeat is in store this year. After a brisk Sunday, the Twin Cities are in for a slight warmup.

But for anybody hoping for more fall warmth, don't count on it, O'Brien said. "Winter is mainly here," he said.