Mpls-St. Paul Declare Snow Emergencies, A.M. Traffic Crawls

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The WCCO Weather Watcher was green, and then the ground was white, but the traffic maps were awash in red Tuesday morning as Twin Cities commuters inched their way to work.

And many of them may have to find a new place to park when they return home tonight, as both Minneapolis and St. Paul declared a snow emergency going into effect on Tuesday.

From 9 p.m. Tuesday until 8 a.m. Wednesday, there is no parking allowed along Minneapolis snow emergency routes. More information on Minneapolis parking rules is available here. Beginning at 9 p.m. in St. Paul, all night plow routes will be plowed. Any vehicle parked on those routes will be ticketed and towed. More information on St. Paul parking is available here.

The Minnesota State Patrol said that, between 5 and 9 a.m., troopers responded to 45 crashes in the Twin Cities metro area. Four of those involved injuries. There were also 90 vehicles that either spun out or went off the road.

Many drivers reported commutes lasting twice as long, thrice as long or even many more times as long as they would under normal circumstances, and most major thoroughfares were stop-and-go for the entire morning, including carpool lanes.

In addition to St. Paul, a number of other Twin Cities metro area cities declared snow emergencies Tuesday morning, including Plymouth, Robbinsdale, West St. Paul, and Crystal. See the full list of closings and delays here.

WCCO director of meteorology Mike Augustyniak said that though the snowflakes should trail off as the day goes on, high winds should still blow that fresh snow around in many parts of the state.