Soaked by rain, sleet and heavy, wet snow, Minnesotans faced one last storm day Friday before sunnier — if much colder — weather moves in.
In the Twin Cities metro area and to the south, Thursday's steady hard rain was expected to turn into sleet, then snow, as temperatures fell overnight, creating an icy mess for Friday morning commuters. According to the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, the .76 of an inch of rain that fell Thursday in the Twin Cities set a rainfall record, breaking the old one of .7 set in 1959.
Road conditions across the state have been hazardous since Wednesday, resulting in at least one fatal accident that killed a Zimmerman woman and injured nine other people Thursday in Sherburne County.
Up North, the snowpack deepened. McGregor in Aitkin County reported 19.2 inches. Finland and Hovland, on Lake Superior's North Shore, reported 18 inches, with 13 in Duluth, 13 in Bemidji, 12.3 in Brainerd, 11 in Moorhead, 5 in St. Cloud and 4 in Cambridge, according to the Weather Service.
Sites to the south received less snow, with 3 inches in Burnsville, 2.5 in Woodbury and Wabasha and 1.4 in Rochester. What they got was rain.
The metro area and much of the southeast remained a largely dreary landscape, with patches of gray and brown showing through the sludgelike new snow. Friday's cold is likely to freeze huge pools of standing water in fields, parks, yards and sidewalks.
For southern Minnesota snow lovers, the storm was a soppy dud. Burnsville's Buck Hill ski area closed all of its operations Thursday due to the heavy rain, and Welch Village shut its slopes down early. Cross-country skiers had little to work with, and ice fishing remained impossible on many state lakes and rivers.
But north and west, the storm was more picturesque — and more hazardous. A blizzard warning remained in effect for much of the Dakotas and part of Minnesota, including Fergus Falls, until Friday morning, the Weather Service said. A winter storm warning covered a large swath of northern, central and western Minnesota, from International Falls to Ely to Duluth, Bemidji, Hibbing, Brainerd, Hinckley, St. Cloud, Willmar and Marshall, with a less dire winter weather advisory closer to the Twin Cities.