Pedestrians make their way to a Minnesota college basketball game against Eastern Kentucky on the University of Minnesota campus during a snowstorm in Minneapolis on Saturday. Image Credit: AP
Minneapolis: A powerful snowstorm socked the upper Midwest on Saturday with as much as 50 centimetres of snow, forcing authorities to close roads across five US states as heavy winds made for treacherous driving conditions.
The weather also postponed to today a National Football League football game that had been set for yesterday between the New York Giants and Minnesota Vikings.
The Giants were stuck on Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri, after their flight was diverted there with the Twin Cities airport closed because of the snowstorm.
The snowstorm was expected to be followed by dangerous cold.
Wind chills
North Dakota experienced wind chills of -16 Celsius. Eastern Minnesota's Oakdale area got 50 centimetres of snow, according to the National Weather Service. The storm was moving eastward, where it dumped about 30 centimetres of snow in Chippewa County in northwestern Wisconsin and was expected to drop up to 61 centimetres by yesterday morning in the Eau Claire area.
Lisa McGrath was shovelling her front walk in southeast Minneapolis, but knew she'd likely have to do it again in a few hours.
"It's good exercise — the only exercise I'm going to get today," McGrath said as she hoisted the shovel.
