The Twin Cities are taking divergent approaches to Wednesday evening’s snow, with St. Paul declaring a snow emergency, and Minneapolis not, despite both cities receiving similar snowfalls on Feb. 18.
Unlike suburbs that have winterlong parking rules, or declare snow emergencies based on snowfall totals, St. Paul and Minneapolis take numerous factors into account when they declare snow emergencies, making the declarations more subject to leaders’ interpretations.
St. Paul has struggled with ice ruts on residential streets across the city after earlier snowstorms this winter. St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her pointed to those ruts in explaining her decision to declare a snow emergency.
“The ice ruts that plagued our streets for weeks just melted,” Her said. “I won’t risk relying on unpredictable spring weather to melt or meaningfully clear our streets, and I am confident our professional group of plow drivers, ticketing crews and city staff will get the job done.”
Minneapolis is relying on warmer temperatures, and has not declared a snow emergency, even though the west metro saw slightly higher snowfall totals than the east metro, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Calderone.
Warmer pavement was already helping to melt the snow, city spokesperson Allen Henry said, and there is no deep cold expected in the coming days that would harden the snow, as happened after snowfalls earlier this winter.
Henry said Minneapolis is working to clear the snow with extra crews during normal work hours, to limit overtime costs.
Minneapolis wanted to limit ticketing and towing this time, Henry said, to cut residents a break after the chaos of the federal immigration surge.
