As predicted, a wide swath of snow has moved across the Twin Cities metro Sunday night into Monday, dumping about a half-a-foot of the white stuff, and presenting a prelude of bitter cold weather that's coming our way.
Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have declared snow emergencies, starting Monday at 9 p.m.
In St. Paul, there is no parking on night plow roads and downtown streets.
In Minneapolis, there's no parking on either side of the street along snow emergency routes on Monday night into Tuesday. Starting Tuesday at 8:00 a.m., there's no parking on the even-numbered sides of Minneapolis streets. Wednesday morning starts parking restrictions on the odd-numbered sides of Mineapolis streets.
That means there's a good chance of drifting when the winds pick up.
WCCO's Paul Douglas says the storm system was pushed our way by a mass of cold air that formed over the arctic circle last week
"Here's the deal, every time you have a cold front, a strong front coming south from the border, it's usually preceded by a clipper, it's usually preceded by a burst of snow," he said.
When the snow finally stops, the accumulation in much of the Twin Cities Metro should be in the six-inch range.
Crews have been out all night clearing roadways... there was a caravan of seven MinDOT snowplows seen rolling down the eastbound lane of I-94, clearing a wide path for this morning's commuter traffic. And with the snowfall just about finished, we start to brace for that cold, cold air to move into the area.