Winter Storm Brings Heavy Snow & Hundreds of Crashes to Minnesota

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- The first winter storm to hit southern Minnesota in about a month brought underwhelming snow totals to the Rochester area and more impressive amounts to the Twin Cities area.

Get our free mobile app

Both areas were under a Winter Weather Advisory that was allowed to expire early Thursday morning. The system began with a light rainfall in Rochester before switching over to snow.

Unofficial Rochester snow totals reported to the National Weather Service range from an inch in northern Rochester to 1.8 inches in southwestern Rochester. An official total reported at the Rochester airport is not yet available.

NWS Twin Cities

Road conditions in southeast Minnesota vary from seasonal to completely covered with snow and ice. MnDOT snow plows are out clearing the freshly fallen snow from the region’s roads.

Road conditions as of 7:30 a.m. on 2/15/24. MnDOT

Meanwhile 6.9 inches of snow fell at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, which the National Weather Service says set a new daily record. The highest unofficial snow total was reported in the far-western Twin Cities suburb of Victoria, which picked up 7.2 inches.

Lyon and Lincoln Counties in far western Minnesota were placed under a Winter Storm Warning Wednesday. The highest unofficial total reported in each county was six inches.

Wednesday’s storm made for difficult travel conditions across the southern swath of Minnesota. The State Patrol responded to 306 crashes between 7 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday.

21 of those crashes involved injuries, including a crash near Albert Lea Thursday morning. Two of the injury crashes involved a fatality of serious injury.

There were also 257 vehicle spinouts and 11 jackknifed semis across the state yesterday, according to State Patrol Public Information Officer Lt Jill Frankfurth.