The Wild Reed: Winter Snowstorm

Sunday, December 28, 2025

Winter Snowstorm

Writes Andrew Krueger of Minnesota Public Radio News:

A major winter storm swept into Minnesota on Sunday, bringing blizzard conditions on what was expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season.

Snowplows were pulled off highways in parts of the state due to poor visibility, with heavy snow accompanied by winds gusting to more than 50 mph at times. Several cities, including Minneapolis, declared snow emergencies.

The National Weather Service Twin Cities office warned of “dangerous, potentially life-threatening travel conditions” through the day Sunday into Monday morning – and said anyone with travel plans across the region should consider making alternate arrangements.

As of Sunday afternoon, steady snow continued to fall across much of the state, with winds gusting to near 50 mph. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) was advising no travel across much of the southern half of the state – including all of southwest and south-central Minnesota.

MnDOT said its no-travel advisories would also remain in place overnight, to be re-evaluated Monday morning. The agency also said snowplows would be taken off highways in south-central Minnesota after dark Sunday night, and resume operations early Monday.

. . . The State Patrol reported more than 190 crashes on state and federal highways across Minnesota between midnight and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, along with more than 160 spinouts or vehicles off the road and seven jackknifed semis.

“Please delay or cancel travel plans until the storm has passed,” the Patrol reported in an early afternoon social media post.

Metro Transit was reporting delays on close to half of its Twin Cities bus routes as of midday, though average delays were less than 10 minutes. As of early afternoon, the percentage of delayed routes was down to about a third.

At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, officials were expecting more than 50,000 people to pass through security checkpoints on Sunday – one of the two busiest days of the holiday travel season.

As of mid-afternoon, more than 120 flights had been canceled and the airport had called in extra workers to clear snow.

“We have a full crew callout as we normally would do in a situation like this,” said Jeff Lea, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson. ”That means hundreds of personnel and our contractors are actively clearing the runways, taxiways, ramp areas and the public side of the airport.”

Air travel across the country was snarled through the weekend as winter weather affected various parts of the U.S.