Overview

A strong winter storm brought widespread snow to the area with accumulations ranging from a few inches up to a foot and a half of fresh snow. The heaviest snowfall was observed from the southwest to eastern Twin Cities metro, with amounts drastically decreasing as you moved into the northern Twin Cities. The timing of the event led to numerous travel impacts, as some of the most intense snow fell during the Friday evening commute. Roadways quickly became snow covered, with reduced visibility due to intense snowfall rates also briefly shutting down flights at MSP airport. 

Due to our location firmly on the cold side of the system, we saw only snow and did not have to deal with mixed precipitation like some areas of NWS La Crosse's coverage area to our southeast. Even further to the south, intense thunderstorms including tornadoes occurred from the same system across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

Map of observed snowfall. The yellow shading shows amounts over 6 inches, and the orange shading shows amounts in excess of a foot. Notice the extreme gradient between the NW to SE metro with 3-4 inches increasing to 18+!

• Photos
• Meteorology
• Snowfall Reports

Photos

Photo courtesy of Kyle Schanus (@KyleSchanus)	Photo courtesy of Tony Dello (@WX_TD)	Plow camera on US-14 showing reduced visibility and heavy snow. Photo courtesy of MNDOT

Meteorology

Heavy snow was evident on radar due to frontogenesis, with intense upward motion through the snow growth layer of the atmosphere.  This intense banding of heavy snow was part of the reason why the gradient of snowfall across the area was so extreme.