Schools closed or delayed, driving difficult across Minnesota as snow continues to fall

Steady snow started falling overnight across a wide swath of Minnesota, causing difficult driving conditions for the Thursday morning commute and prompting many schools to cancel or delay the start of classes.

Brainerd, Fergus Falls and Little Falls were among the school districts that canceled classes Thursday. Several dozen other districts moved to online learning or were operating on a two-hour delay. Those schools are listed below.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation was reporting snow-covered highways across the southwest half of the state as of 7:30 a.m. — including the Twin Cities.

Ahead of the morning rush hour, there were already reports of crashes and spinouts on freeways in the metro area. MnDOT also was reporting crashes and at least one jackknifed semi along Interstate 94 in western Minnesota.

Metro Transit was reporting delays on more than a third of its bus routes in the Twin Cities.

Winter storm warnings continue through this evening from the Red River Valley south and east to Brainerd, Duluth, Willmar, St. Cloud and the Twin Cities. The National Weather Service says a widespread snowfall of 5 to 7 inches is expected, with locally higher amounts.

To the north and south of the warning area, most of the rest of Minnesota is under winter weather advisories for the possibility of 3 to 5 inches of snow.

Find forecast updates on MPR Weather’s Updraft blog.

School closings and delays for Thursday, Dec. 19

If you don’t see your school listed here, check your district’s website or social media pages to confirm the status of classes for Thursday.

Closed

• Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City

• Belle Plaine

• Bertha-Hewitt

• Brainerd

• Central Public Schools (Norwood Young America)

• Chokio-Alberta

• Dassel-Cokato

• Ellsworth, Wis.

• Fergus Falls

• Glencoe-Silver Lake

• Henning

• Hill-Murray

• Hutchinson

• Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted

• Hudson, Wis.

• Little Falls

• Long Prairie-Grey Eagle

• New Prague Area (blended learning day for K-5)

• Onamia

• Pelican Rapids

• River Falls, Wis.

• St. Croix Lutheran

• Sibley East

• Somerset, Wis.

• Stillwater

• Tri-City United

• Waconia

E-learning day

Two-hour delay

• Ada-Borup-West

• Aitkin

• Alexandria

• Annandale

• Ashby

• Becker

• Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa

• Big Lake

• Blackduck

• BOLD

• Brandon-Evansville

• Breckenridge

• Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose

• Butterfield-Odin

• Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley

• Fosston

• Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop

• Hancock

• Henning

• Jordan

• Kimball Area

• Lake Park Audubon

• Lakeview

• Le Sueur-Henderson

• Maple Lake

• Marshall

• Melrose Area

• Menahga

• Milroy

• Minneota

• Minnesota State Community and Technical College — Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead and Wadena campuses opening at 10a

• Minnewaska Area

• Montevideo

• Monticello

• Morris Area

• New York Mills

• Norman County East

• Northland Community & Technical College — campus opening at 10a

• Osakis

• Pequot Lakes

• Pillager

• Pine River-Backus

• Red Rock Central

• Renville County West

• Rothsay

• St. James

• St. Michael-Albertville

• Sauk Centre

• Ulen-Hitterdal

• Tracy Area

• Underwood

• University of Minnesota Crookston — reduced operations until 10a

• Verndale

• Wabasha-Kellogg

• Wabasso

• Wadena-Deer Creek

• Waubun-Ogema-White Earth

• West Central Area

• Wheaton

• Yellow Medicine East

Forecast updates

Travel conditions

These state transportation departments offer live updates on road conditions and crashes:

For bus and light rail riders in the Twin Cities, Metro Transit offers weather-related updates on its Metro Transit and Metro Transit Alerts Twitter pages, as well as on its website.

Flight updates

If you’re planning to fly from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport or another airport around the region — or if you are expecting visitors to arrive by plane — airports offer flight status updates online: