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Whiteout conditions expected as winter storm grips Minnesota

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A winter storm battering Minnesota took a brief break Thursday morning after dumping a fresh coat of light fluffy snow. But even as the sun came out, the respite wasn’t expected to last long.

A prolonged period with strong winds will crank up by midday, dropping wind chill readings dangerously low and creating whiteout conditions that threaten to disrupt travel by ground and air for a second straight day.

“Don’t let your guard down,” the National Weather Service said. “Life-threatening conditions develop later today.”

A blizzard warning goes into effect Thursday afternoon in areas of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River while a winter storm warning covers areas east of the river, with both in place through Friday night, the Weather Service said.

“Several hours of whiteout conditions are expected this afternoon onward, even in metropolitan areas,” the Weather Service said. “Conditions worsen the second half of today, becoming extremely dangerous Friday through Saturday morning.”

Temperatures were expected to remain below zero all day in the Twin Cities and most of the state, the Weather Service said. Add in the winds and it will feel like anywhere from minus 30 to minus 45 degrees.

Winds gusting between 40 and 50 mph will create “many hours of whiteout conditions” and make travel “very difficult as roads drift shut.”

There was plenty of snow to blow around after 7.4 inches fell Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport — the official recording spot for the Twin Cities. That set a new record for Dec. 21.

Other totals included 7.5 inches in White Bear Lake, 7.3 inches in Savage and Shakopee, 6.3 inches in Otsego, 6 inches in Fridley, 5.9 inches in Bloomington and 5 inches in Red Wing, the Weather Service said.

The snow combined with frigid conditions allowed the precipitation to freeze and compact on the pavement, making for a slippery and icy morning commute. At 9:15 a.m., roads in the metro were improving, but several crashes and spinouts littered metro area roads, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said.

“Slick spots may abound,” said MnDOT spokeswoman Anne Meyer. While the agency has 200 plows working in the Twin Cities and hundreds more across the state, “it takes longer” in the cold as chemicals don’t work as fast or well. “Crews are out there and we are doing what we can with what we have,” she said.

Overnight through 7:30 a.m. Thursday, the State Patrol responded to 47 crashes and 118 vehicles that had spun out or landed in ditches.

Thursday was to be one of the busiest travel days at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, with 33,000 passengers expected to pass through TSA checkpoints. Most flights left as scheduled, but by 9 a.m., 26 departing flights had been canceled and 21 were delayed, according to the flight tracking website flightaware.com.

Some cargo was also delayed as inclement weather moved east and south across the country. Amazon and FedEx said severe weather could cause delays for those awaiting Christmas deliveries.

“Our delivery promises factor in forecasted weather and delivery dates are shown transparently at checkout,” said Sam Stephenson, an Amazon spokesman. “While the vast majority of deliveries make it to customers without issue, if something does occur, we work with customers directly to make it right.”

Winter break began early for thousands of kids as many schools canceled classes Thursday. In Minneapolis, where winter break was already underway, there was no programming at recreation centers run by the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. They were closed Thursday, as was the Phillips Aquatics Center.

In St. Paul, all recreation centers will close at 5 p.m. Thursday and no outdoor activities will be held. The Holiday Express event at Phalen Recreation Center is canceled, the city said.

Downhill ski slopes and tubing facilities at Elm Creek and Hyland Hills park reserves were closed Thursday and will be through Sunday. But trails at all Three Rivers Park District locations remained open.

“If you are brave enough hike trail you can do that,” said spokesman Tom Knisley.

Minneapolis, St. Paul, Osseo, Hastings, Plymouth, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Eden Prairie, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park were among metro area cities to declare snow emergencies that continued Thursday.

Here’s a timeline of what to expect over the next three days:

Thursday

Winds will pick up over the next 12 hours, reaching 20 to 30 mph by evening and leading to widespread blowing and drifting and reduced visibility. Wind chill readings will sink to between minus 30 and minus 45 degrees.

Thursday night to Friday

Conditions will be the worst after 6 p.m. Thursday through most of Friday, the National Weather Service said. Peak winds will approach 40 mph between midnight and noon Friday. “Significant travel impacts are likely across the area,” the Weather Service said.

Power outages also are possible as snow still caked on trees from last week’s storm could cause branches to break under the pressure and fall on power lines, the Weather Service said.

Saturday

Dangerously low wind chills will envelop much of central and southern Minnesota through Saturday morning. The lowest readings are expected from 9 a.m. Thursday to 9 a.m. Friday and again on Saturday morning.



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Coloring book duo teams up again to highlight St. Paul’s Rondo history

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Kosfeld used family photographs and old newspaper pictures as the basis for her illustrations. She also researched clothing of the period. It was important to her, she said, that her drawings “were respectful. No cartoons or caricatures.”

“Rondo,” Kosfeld said, “can be a heavy subject to some communities. But I wanted to show it was just beautiful. Playful.”

The project took nearly two years to complete from January 2023 to early 2024. Kosfeld and Kronick published the coloring book themselves. The Rondo book can be found at several shops and bookstores in St. Paul, including Next Chapter Books, Red Balloon, Wet Paint, Waldmann Brewery, Subtext Books, the Minnesota Historical Society gift shop and St. Paul Children’s Hospital.

Kosfeld is working on a third coloring book with a St. Paul focus, this one on the art, architecture and history of the St. Paul park system, to be published by the Ramsey County Historical Society.



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Harris goes to church while Trump muses about reporters being shot

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LITITZ, Pa. — Kamala Harris told a Michigan church on Sunday that God offers America a ”divine plan strong enough to heal division,” while Donald Trump gave a profane and conspiracy-laden speech in which he mused about reporters being shot and labeled Democrats as ”demonic.”

The two major candidates took starkly different tones on the final Sunday of the campaign. Less than 48 hours before Election Day, Harris, the Democratic vice president, argued that Tuesday’s election offers voters the chance to reject ”chaos, fear and hate,” while Trump, the Republican former president, repeated lies about voter fraud to try to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and suggested that the country was falling apart without him in office.

Harris was concentrating her Sunday in Michigan, beginning the day with a few hundred parishioners at Detroit’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. It marked the fourth consecutive Sunday that Harris, who is Baptist, has spoken to a Black congregation, a reflection of how critical Black voters are across multiple battleground states.

”I see faith in action in remarkable ways,” she said in remarks that quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. ”I see a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward. As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states and so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.”

She never mentioned Trump, though she’s certain to return to her more conventional partisan speech in stops later Sunday. But Harris did tell her friendly audience that ”there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos.” The election and ”this moment in our nation,” she continued, ”has to be about so much more than partisan politics. It must be about the good work we can do together.”

Harris finished her remarks in about 11 minutes — starting and ending during Trump’s roughly 90-minute speech at a chilly outdoor rally at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, airport.

Trump usually veers from subject to subject, a discursive style he has labeled ”the weave.” But in Lancaster, he went on long tangents and hardly mentioned his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.

Instead, Trump relaunched criticisms of voting procedures across the nation and his own staff. He resurrected grievances about being prosecuted after trying to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden, suggesting at one point that he ”shouldn’t have left” the White House.



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How votes get counted in Minnesota on Election Day

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If that’s good, in many counties, election judges have a machine tabulate results, or count votes for candidates. In these counties, one copy of the tape the that machine prints in this process is taken to the central office. In most places, that is the county elections office. In others, the central office is the city elections office, which then reports to the county, Simon said.

Some precincts are close to the elections office, and some are far away, which explains some of the variation in when results show up.

But not every county tabulates at the precinct.

In Ramsey County, judges take the ballot counting machines from precincts to the county’s election office, Elections Manager David Triplett said. There, judges of different parties verify the machines’ seals, check the number of ballots against the number of voters that day, and if they add up, tabulate the votes.

“We have 100 receipts; we have 100 ballots. All right, go ahead and let’s report that result,” he said.

It is legal for precincts to transmit results to central offices online, but it’s rare, Simon said. And no devices used in the election can be connected to the internet while voting is in progress.



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