Twin Cities Snowstorm Cuts Power, Triggers Car Accidents

Early Snow Stuns Twin Cities

This could go down as one of the most significant snowstorms to strike the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area before the Thanksgiving holiday in two decades. The impacts were far reaching; from power outages to car accidents to flight cancellations.


The impacts were felt outside of Minnesota, as well. Two deaths from a car accident in Wisconsin are being blamed on the snowstorm.

Roughly 8 to 12 inches of heavy, wet snow has fallen over the Twin Cities since the snow began late Friday night.According to the Star Tribune, Greg Spoden at the Minnesota State Climate Office stated that this will probably be the biggest pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm for the Twin Cities since 1991, the year of the Halloween monster.

A storm system, which originated in the central Plains, intensified on Friday and into Saturday morning as it moved into Iowa and Wisconsin.

Snowy street in Minneapolis (AP photo)

Snow fell in earnest during the mid-morning hours over the Twin Cities metro area, at times at the rate of 1 inch per hour.

With a temperature hovering around the freezing mark, the snow that fell had a very high water content. This translates as a heavy snow that results in backbreaking shoveling, not the light and powdery kind.

The snow began to accumulate on tree branches and power lines and weighed them down considerably. The weighing of the snow led to the snapping of hundreds if not thousands of tree branches citywide, and power lines crashed to the ground.