From frosted trees to mounds of snow that looked like a mini mountain range, there were plenty of scenic sights.
“Unfortunately it didn’t happen before Christmas,” said Brian Whitbeck, who spent part of Monday at his sister’s house in Blaine snow blowing the driveway and sidewalk. “Then we could’ve got that nice Minnesota Christmas.”
The storm dumped almost five inches of snow in Blaine.
“It was howling like crazy last night so it probably blew around quite a bit,” Whitbeck said. “I think it dried out enough so it’s like crystalized instead of that heavy, heavy snow. This is just kind of a bit more lighter, drier.”
Slippery roads
Meanwhile it was slow going on most roads in the North Metro as drivers dealt with slippery conditions.
On Lexington and 109th in Blaine three cars slid off the road and into the snow.
According to MnDOT’s Kent Barnard there were over 500 crashes in Minnesota, including injury collisions, spinouts, vehicles off the road and jackknifed semis.
“We had full crews on trying to fight it, but the blowing and drifting snow, and just the volume we got made things difficult,” Barnard said. “We’re now into the storm cleanup mode, but I would like to remind people that bridge decks, ramps, loops are still very snow-covered and slippery.”
Major highways in the North Metro such as I-35W, I-35E and US 10 were in good shape by midday Monday thanks to MnDOT’s fleet of plows.
“We had full crews on duty starting at 5 am Sunday morning in anticipation of the snow that was then forecast to move into the area…” Barnard said. “The real issue we have is as it starts warming up in the next day or so we’re going to have melting snow which is going to re-freeze into ice and create more hazardous conditions. Plus there’s always black ice that forms on the roadways, bridge decks, ramps, etc. and that makes it more difficult because you can’t really see black ice. You hit it, you spin out and bam you’re in the ditch. You may run into some areas where you still have some snow compaction because of slipperiness, so it behooves one to drive very carefully.”
Other snow totals in the Twin Cities include seven inches in Burnsville, 6.2 in Maple Grove and 5.8 at MSP.
