A slow go on Twin Cities roads after season's first major snowfall

The Thursday morning rush hour got off to a rough start for early Twin Cities commuters and was slow throughout the morning as freeways and highways remained snow- and slush-covered following the season's largest snowfall.

Mainline roads were improving by 8:30 a.m. as the sun and chemicals spread by Minnesota Department of Transportation plows helped to melt snow and ice, but slick spots remained.

As a result, travel times were much longer than usual, and trips were complicated by traffic jams that developed due to crashes and spin outs. Traffic was tangled on southbound Hwy. 100 through St. Louis Park and Golden Valley, eastbound Hwy. 36 through Roseville, northbound I-494 near Hwy. 7 in Minnetonka and on eastbound I-94 in downtown Minneapolis, according to MnDOT.

Across the state, troopers responded to 306 crashes and 257 spin outs between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, the State Patrol said. There were 11 jackknifed semi-trailer trucks. One of those blocked lanes on eastbound I-94 in Lake Elmo for several hours Thursday morning.

Transit also experienced difficulty. At 8:15 a.m Thursday, 45% of Metro Transit buses were running behind schedule with the average delay about 7 minutes, Metro Transit reported.

MnDOT crews spent the night clearing away more than 7 inches of snow in places including Shakopee, Chanhassen and Norwood Young America. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport picked up 6.9 inches of snow, a record for Valentine's Day. Other totals included 6.5 inches in Savage, Edina, Richfield, Bloomington and Waconia, according to the National Weather Service.

Cities that picked up between 5 and 6 inches included Burnsville, Cottage Grove, Forest Lake and Oak Grove, the weather service said.

Neither Minneapolis nor St. Paul had declared a snow emergency as of Thursday morning, but a few suburbs had including, Bloomington, Hastings and Plymouth.