Second round of snow moves in; 3-6 inches expected in the metro

A potent winter storm that socked much of central and northern Minnesota with a hefty snowfall Monday continued into a second day Tuesday, and overnight arrived in the metro area where 3 to 6 inches is predicted to fall throughout the day.

Scores of schools across the state have called off classes or switched to a learn-at-home day Tuesday as a winter storm warning remained in effect until 6 p.m. in an area from the Minnesota-South Dakota border to the northern Twin Cities suburbs and north to Duluth and Detroit Lakes. A blizzard warning covered Big Stone, Traverse and Wilkin counties in far western Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.

Road conditions were expected to deteriorate in the metro Tuesday as the snow intensifies through midday even though the Minnesota Department of Transportation has a full complement of plows out, said spokeswoman Anne Meyer.

MnDOT pretreated roads in the metro Monday, but with arctic air mixing with the snow, the chemicals and salt that melt ice won't work as fast, prompting Meyer to remind motorists to slow down and give plows room to work.

"We will be on the job until we get the roads clear," she said. "We have enough drivers and materials. We are never running to Lowe's."

Outstate, winds gusting between 20 and 25 mph have reduced visibility leading to difficult travel conditions, MnDOT said. In North Dakota, where there was a multivehicle pileup west of Fargo on Monday, Interstate 94 was closed between Fargo and Jamestown, and Interstate 29 was closed between Fargo and the South Dakota border, the state's transportation department said.

MnDOT and the weather service were advising motorists to stay off the roads if possible and to pack a survival kit in case they get stuck.

Tuesday's snowfall may be one of the biggest of the season in the metro, but will be quite average by February standards. The largest snowstorm in the Twin Cities this season occurred Dec. 10-11 when a foot fell at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. But the snow melted a few days later when temperatures soared into the 50s and 60s and brought the state's first-ever December tornados.

But elsewhere two-day storm totals will likely be over a foot. On Monday, Wendell in west-central Minnesota had already received 13 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said. Other totals included 9.5 inches in Evansville, 8.5 inches in Little Falls and Mora, 8 inches in Battle Lake, 7.2 inches in Royalton, 7.2 inches in Browns Valley and 7 inches in areas near Duluth.

Some of those communities and places such as St. Cloud, Duluth, Willmar and Brainerd could another see 3 to 5 inches Tuesday, pushing the two-day snow total to a foot or more, the weather service said.

In the metro, about 35.7 inches had fallen through Monday at the airport, the official weather recording station for the Twin Cities. That's a few inches above the seasonal average, the weather service said

After Sunday's balmy respite from the bitter winter cold — the mercury topped out at 44 degrees — no big warmups are in the forecast. Highs the rest of the week in the Twin Cities will be in the teens with lows near zero. That pattern is expected to hold the rest of the month.