Snow totals: A foot for parts of west central MN, just a few inches in southern MN

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From rain to snow, Minnesotans ran the gamut of winter weather Saturday during a wet snowstorm. 

Snow totals ranged from 12 inches in Holloway to just 3 in North Mankato. 

The storm had a severe impact on travel and caused hundreds of traffic incidents throughout the state. A number of Twin Cities metro communities declared snow emergencies as well. 

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning north of a line from St. James to Faribault from 9 a.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday.

Snow Totals

Herman: 15"

Detroit Lakes: 13"

Fergus Falls: 11"

Benson: 10"

Deerwood: 9.5"

Cold Spring: 9"

Becker: 8"

St. Cloud: 7.5"

Montevideo: 7"

Willmar: 7"

Minneapolis: 6"

Maple Plain: 6"

Burnsville: 5.5"

Mahtomedi: 5"

MSP Airport: 4.7"

Key takeaways

The snow was very heavy, wet, slushy, almost concrete-style snow, unlike what we saw in February. This makes it tough to shovel and very compactible.

“If you have heavy duty snow coming in, you pretreat, that layer of snow melts because of the salt, then as more water gets added to the salt, it dilutes - loses its freezing prevention properties - and then suddenly we have ice, and then we have more of a problem,” said Kevin Gutknecht of Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Precipitation started as a bit of a rainy mix in the metro for a solid couple of hours before transitioning to heavy snow by mid to late afternoon on Saturday. For most areas, the precipitation was all snow by Saturday evening.

Metro travel impacts

Sunday: Decreasing impact--roads will still be slushy and snow covered, but with temperatures in the 20s to 30s, the salt/sand solution will work quite well, especially with the higher sun angle during the afternoon leading to drastically improving road conditions during the day.