Blizzard Hits St. Louis County With 50 mph Winds, Cancels Flights

Winds gusting to 50 mph drove snow sideways across St. Louis County on March 13, bringing full blizzard conditions to Duluth and surrounding areas, grounding flights at Duluth International Airport and leaving officials pleading with drivers to stay off roads choked by whiteout conditions.

The storm's grip on the region produced at least two serious highway incidents. A semi jackknifed on Interstate 35, and a separate emergency unfolded at 11:30 a.m. Friday when another semi became stuck on icy, snow-covered train tracks outside Duluth and was struck by a train. According to a St. Louis County Sheriff's Office news release, "the driver of the semi was attempting to put chains on the truck when a train began to approach." The driver managed to escape: "The driver was able to move away from the truck prior to the collision." No injury information was released.

Snowplows worked to keep roads passable, but conditions deteriorated fast enough that county officials urged residents to avoid travel entirely. The combination of heavy snowfall and near-zero visibility made even short trips hazardous throughout the day.

The blizzard arrived as part of a broader and potentially historic weather system hammering Minnesota. Friday's winds had already knocked out power to thousands of people across the Twin Cities and other parts of the state, with the North Shore experiencing blizzard conditions that same morning. Worse was still coming: the National Weather Service warned that blizzard conditions and snowfall exceeding 12 to 18 inches were possible across much of Minnesota, with a powerful storm expected to intensify starting Saturday afternoon and push heavy precipitation through Sunday.

A Winter Storm Warning was placed in effect from Saturday afternoon through Monday morning for much of central and southern Minnesota, covering Morris, Alexandria, St. Cloud, Red Wing, Mankato, Albert Lea and the Twin Cities. The scale of the system prompted the Star Tribune to describe it as a storm that "could land on the list of the Twin Cities' all-time biggest," with hours of blizzard conditions threatening to make travel "difficult or impossible" well into the new week.

At Duluth International Airport, flight cancellations left travelers stranded with no specific timeline for when operations would normalize. The full scope of the disruption, including the number of flights affected and which carriers were impacted, had not been disclosed as of Friday.