NEXT Weather Alert: Dangerous cold, blizzard conditions before Christmas

The Minnesota State Patrol says between 6 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, there have been 266 crashes, including 20 that resulted in injuries. There were also 308 vehicle spinouts and off-road accidents, and two jackknifed semis.

The FAA issued a "Ground Stop" at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Wednesday evening, halting planes from landing and departing for less than an hour. It expired at 8 p.m.

Light flakes began to fall Wednesday morning, and that caused things to get slick around the Twin Cities as it mixed with the sub-zero temperatures. Then, the snow began to really come down in most parts of the state.

A rest stop near Interstate 94 in Maple Grove has gotten busier with drivers of all kinds. We've seen people pull over just to clean off their wipers or ice scrape, or just to take a break.

Truck drivers coming from northern Minnesota and going south said the roads were bad Wednesday morning, but they felt like they were staying ahead of the storm.

My parents live in western Minnesota. They made it a point to drive here three days early so they could beat most of the snow.   

"We came from out in the country by Milan, Minnesota, and we headed straight east to pick up Highway 12 and the roads were absolutely horrible," said Dave Lauritsen of Big Bend Township. "We had a poker game scheduled for tonight and we moved that to Monday night."

My dad has priorities. But he did say that between Willmar and the Twin Cities it got better, but that's not the case several hours later.

Madison Cox from Plymouth says even though she hit the road early, she was still met with slick roads, and a variety of other driving challenges.

"You can't see very far. Visibility isn't great, and then when your car fogs up it's really not good," Cox said.

The same goes for Samantha Herman of Maple Grove.

"I had ice built up on my wipers, so it's taken a couple times to clear them off and scrape them," Herman said.

Truck driver Ricardo Contreras says low visibility has become a big issue.

"There were some good spots but a little sketchy, ice on the road in certain areas. But now it's just getting whiteout," Contreras said.

He had come from Fargo through Maple Grove, and he's making a delivery in Rosemount before heading to Iowa. After that, he's going to try and make it back to his home in Willmar. But it might be best for him to just pull over at some point. 

James Stumpf came from Michigan with a delivery to get done before Christmas.

"I drove all last night and delivered this morning. Just trying to get back out of it and find places to get a hotel for the night and be done with it," Stumpf said.

Don't drive if you don't have to, and take it slow if you do.

Road conditions, especially headed up north, have certainly worsened throughout Wednesday, which is why many headed to cabin country for the holidays had to change their plans to get up there safely.

Emily Dale is headed to Gull Lake for Christmas to see family. Originally her plan was to head north Wednesday night after work, but she changed to an 8 a.m. departure when she saw the forecast. And once she's up north, she's staying put.

"We're just going to hunker down. It's going to be freezing. We're originally from Minnesota, but we currently live in Colorado and we're back here for Christmas, and we are not conditioned for minus-10 or whatever it's going to be, so we're just going to hang out inside," Dale said. "We were going to go cross-country skiing and stuff like that, but now we're like nope, we're going to hang out inside."

Dale says the worst part was when cars drove past them and blew up the snow on the roads, making visibility difficult. The good news though is Dale made it there safely and was happy with the decision to leave early.

It was an early release day for student Damian Natzel from Cambridge, which is a little over an hour north of the Twin Cities. Judging from what the roads looked like up there, you can see why school was impacted.

"My school had an early release, one hour. A lot of other schools had two hours. Also a lot of our activities after school were canceled, so like basketball practices and hockey has been canceled, and that was just part of safety," Natzel said.

Minneapolis and St. Paul have both declared snow emergencies Wednesday.

MINNEAPOLIS RULES

Parking rules will go into effect at 9 p.m. Wednesday, meaning that parking will not be allowed on snow emergency routes. Motorists risk having their vehicles towed.

At 8 a.m. Thursday, Day 2 rules begin. Plow crews will clear the even sides of non-snow emergency route streets, meaning that motorists need to park on the odd side of the street or until the even side has been cleared. Day 2 rules will last until 8 p.m.

Day 3 rules begin at 8 a.m. Friday, when the odd sides of non-snow emergency streets will be cleared. Motorists will need to park on the even sides of streets or risk being towed.

Motorists whose cars are towed are responsible for paying for the cost of towing and a ticket fee.

ST. PAUL RULES

Starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday, crews will plow all Night Routes, meaning that residents should avoid parking on those streets overnight.

At 8 a.m. Thursday, all Day Routes will be cleared.  

Click here for more details.

The Minnesota State Patrol says between 6 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, there have been 202 crashes, including 16 that resulted in injuries. And there were 189 vehicle spinouts and off-road accidents. 

The University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus is implementing reduced operations beginning Thursday at 4:30 p.m. through Saturday at noon. Only essential on-campus employees must report to campus. Click here for more information.

WCCO's Joseph Dames says that snow should start accumulating in the Twin Cities Wednesday afternoon before winds kick up Thursday.

Watch his latest forecast below.

More cities are declaring snow emergencies as the latest round of winter moves into the Twin Cities and other parts of the state.

Robbinsdale announced that their emergency goes into effect at 10 p.m. Wednesday. 

"No on-street parking until roads are plowed curb to curb. Vehicles not removed are subject to issuance of a citation and impoundment," the city reported.

St. Louis Park declared a snow emergency that goes into effect at the same time. 

Brooklyn Park and Eden Prairie also declared snow emergencies, the former beginning at 11 p.m. and the latter when the snow has reached 2 inches. Another city declaring a snow emergency early Wednesday was Le Sueur, which goes into effect at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

St. James' snow emergency will go into effect Thursday at 1 a.m.

Later, Brooklyn Center, Crystal, Elk River and Plymouth also announced snow emergencies. 

Click here to see if your city has declared a snow emergency.

An airport spokesman told WCCO's Adam Duxter Wednesday morning that, while they'd anticipated Thursday and Friday to be their busiest days, numbers are today ahead of the storm.

MSP Airport has additional staff on hand this week to help navigate busy travel days. Delta, American, Sun Country, Southwest and American are already all offering waivers to anyone looking to reschedule.

As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Minnesota State Patrol reports there have been 61 crashes statewide in this latest round of winter weather. Of those, none were fatal or involved serious injury.

There were also 39 spinouts or vehicles that went off the road, and one semi trailer that jackknifed.

WCCO meteorologist Joseph Dames shared the following outlook for what to expect as we get into the thick of the new NEXT Weather Alert storm situation:

American, Delta, Southwest, Sun Country and United are among the airlines waiving change fees because of this storm. Read more. 

Robbinsdale Area Schools will be closed Wednesday and Thursday due to the approaching winter storm.

In addition to all classes, these district programs are also canceled:

* All preschool programming
* Early Adventures
* ECFE classes and events
* Adult Academic Program classes

Classes will resume after winter break on Jan. 9, 2023

The Sartell-St. Stephens School District near St. Cloud will dismiss classes two hours early Wednesday, and will cancel all classes Thursday, starting the winter break one day early for students.

For Wednesday:

* No afternoon preschool
* No after school activities or sports
* No community education classes

For Thursday:

* No meals provided
* No before and after school activities
* No community education classes
* No KIDSTART programming
* Roosevelt Boys & Girls Club location will be open for all registered students

Rochester Public Schools is already announcing a snow day for Thursday, saying it will be "a complete District closure due to the severity of the storm."