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GARY EICHTEN: Well, let's catch up on the latest on the weather. There are winter weather warnings and advisories in effect for Minnesota tonight and tomorrow. Joining us from the National Weather Service is Rich Nystad, one of the forecasters out there. Good afternoon rich.

RICH NYSTAD: Hi, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, first of all, let's do some statistics. How deep is the snow at this point, officially?

RICH NYSTAD: Well, I think we've lost track here a little bit. Let me just holler over and see if we've got a up-to-the-minute report here. Just a second. Sam, how much snow we got? I didn't know you were going to ask that question.

GARY EICHTEN: Oh, that's all right.

RICH NYSTAD: 22.8 inches at the Twin Cities airport up until 4 o'clock.

GARY EICHTEN: Oh, that's great.

RICH NYSTAD: That, of course, breaks the single storm record in the 24-hour record for the Twin Cities.

GARY EICHTEN: Yeah. If you're going to suffer, you might as well do it in record form.

RICH NYSTAD: That's right.

GARY EICHTEN: What's the-- now apparently, the worst of it seems to be in the northeastern part of Minnesota right now.

RICH NYSTAD: So the heaviest snowfall rates are in the northeast part of Minnesota. And that's where the heaviest snow will fall overnight and into Saturday. However, another hazard that is associated with this storm are the strong winds-- northwest winds 30 to 40 miles an hour, which are developing across west central, southwest, and the rest of southern Minnesota, except the extreme southeast.

And as a result, we have upgraded our highlights or warnings or whatever to a blizzard warning for the entire Southern half of Minnesota, except for the extreme southeast where there wasn't that much snow that fell.

GARY EICHTEN: Blizzard Warning for virtually all of southern Minnesota.

RICH NYSTAD: That includes the Twin Cities. And I know if you live in the Cities, the situation may not be all that bad because of the shelter from the trees and the buildings and that type of thing. But on the outer side of the Twin Cities, situation will be very bad. And those venturing forth outside the Cities will probably encounter whiteout conditions.

GARY EICHTEN: That's tonight?

RICH NYSTAD: That's tonight.

GARY EICHTEN: Now, what are we looking at tomorrow?

RICH NYSTAD: Well, we're looking for slow improvement. The wind will still be blowing, but the visibility will come up a little. It'll still be kind of a bad day tomorrow, but not impossible to get around across the South. However, the North will continue to be under the gun through much of Saturday, especially the northeast.

GARY EICHTEN: Should it pretty well have moved out of here by Sunday, then?

RICH NYSTAD: By Sunday, right, it'll just be a matter of cleaning up the walks and roads and that type of thing. However, one legacy the storm will leave us will be extremely cold temperatures. With this deep snow cover, the sun that shines will be reflected back into space. And at night when you have deep snow cover, temperatures drop rather rapidly. So we could be having record or near-record lows beginning later in the weekend and continuing for several days.

GARY EICHTEN: One last quick question for you, Rich. Do you suppose this says something about what we can look for the rest of the winter? Or is this a true aberration?

RICH NYSTAD: No, I don't think we can really tie things into the rest of the winter. I think the only thing we can say is we, for sure, know that the baseball season is over with this one.

GARY EICHTEN: [LAUGHS] Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

RICH NYSTAD: Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Rich Nystad, who is a forecaster out at Twin Cities International, the Weather Service out at the airport. Catherine Winter joins us now with the latest on Twin City driving conditions or lack thereof.

CATHERINE WINTER: Gary, the word on driving is, don't. And apparently, don't take the bus either. The last word that we've received is that the Metropolitan Transit Commission has decided to close down the bus system. Buses are still struggling through at this hour. But as of 8:00 tonight, the last buses will leave downtown Minneapolis in St. Paul. I just spoke with Todd Melby, who's a spokesman for the MTC.

TODD MELBY: The reason we did it was twofold was because conditions are getting very bad out there, especially out in suburban areas where there aren't as many plows, or the roads just aren't as good. But the reason is just the weather conditions are just too bad out there.

We've had lots of buses that have been stuck in the snow. And we aren't able to keep the buses out there as frequently as we'd like to. So people have to stand and wait for longer than they normally do. So we're just going to call it a night after 8 o'clock and hope things are better tomorrow.

CATHERINE WINTER: Melby says he hopes the MTC can reopen in the morning tomorrow. He says the first morning buses normally start running at about 4:30 AM. Gary, depending on who's reckoning you use, this is the second or the third time in its history that the MTC has closed down. The one I remember is the 1981 ice storm.

If you're trying to take a bus while they're still running-- they're not all running on their regular routes or their regular schedules-- the MTC recommends that you get yourself to a plowed street and try and find a bus there. If you're trying to commute by car, don't.

Roads around the metro area are still snow-covered and slippery. Plows are out on the freeways, but ramps are slippery and visibility is only about an 1/8 to a quarter mile because of the snow and blowing snow. In Minneapolis, the State Patrol just told me that Highway 7 is closed. They weren't unfortunately able to tell me how much of it is closed or in which direction. They're too busy out there trying to deal with the accidents and field those phone calls.

Even if you have your car parked right now and you're not trying to drive anywhere, you may still be in trouble because both Minneapolis and St. Paul have declared snow emergencies, which go into effect at 9 o'clock tonight. That means-- now listen carefully-- that today in both cities, there's no parking on snow emergency routes after 9 o'clock tonight.

St. Paul has an additional rule that goes into effect tonight. That means no parking on one side of the North South residential streets after 9 o'clock. Those streets are marked with signs that say "no parking this side of street during a snow emergency." That should be simple enough. Then tomorrow the rules are different in the two cities.

In Minneapolis, no parking on odd-numbered sides of residential streets from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. And on Sunday in Minneapolis, no parking on even numbered sides of residential streets from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. In St. Paul tomorrow, no parking on East West residential streets, beginning at 8 o'clock in the morning. And then on Sunday in St. Paul, no parking on the [INAUDIBLE] side of North South residential streets. By the end of the winter, we'll have it all straight, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Absolutely. 9 o'clock tonight, they go into effect?

CATHERINE WINTER: Right.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, Jim Newman is with us now, WSCN reporter from Duluth. And Jim, I understand you have-- well, you broken down in the middle of Duluth?

JIM NEWMAN: Yes, I had my own winter adventure here, Gary. Took the existential approach to reporting on this storm. I tried to make it home from our studios in downtown Duluth, to my home, which is over the hill, about 3 miles or so in the area called woodland, and just didn't make it.

In Duluth, Gary, traffic is virtually at a standstill. We have snow fall of about 20 inches so far. We're due to break the all-time record for a single winter storm in Duluth, which is 23 inches, I understand. Right now, it's about 32 degrees. Winds are out of the north at about 25 to 30 miles per hour and gusty. And it's a winter wonderland up here, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Anybody moving at all?

JIM NEWMAN: Well, Minnesotans being who they are, there are some very large trucks and some fancy Range Rovers moving about. You'll also see a variety of folks out on the street as well. I've seen snowmobilers, people in cross-country skis. I saw a group of what looked like college students, about six or eight of them, trying to lift a four-wheel drive Subaru out of a snow bank.

People are just trying to make the best of it. No travel at all is advised. There are virtually no events going on in Duluth today. And the DTA, or the Duluth Transit Authority, hasn't been running all day. There's been no bus service in Duluth all day as well.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, keep your head down, Jim.

JIM NEWMAN: Thanks, Gary.

GARY EICHTEN: Talk to you tomorrow.

JIM NEWMAN: All right.

GARY EICHTEN: Joe Follansbee joins us now from Rochester. Joe is a reporter at station KLSC. And Joe, you folks got off a little bit luckier. At least, you didn't get quite so much snow.

JOE FOLLANSBEE: Well, that's right, Gary. We got up this morning, and there was just a little bit of snow and ice on the ground, and everybody seemed to get to work fairly easily. But then along about this afternoon, the snow moved in. And it's windy and blowy.

And the road conditions are just awful. People are crawling in their cars up and down the streets. I-90 is closed west of Highway 63, because there's a power lines down over the road at a couple of places. And there's blowing and drifting snow. Of course, travel is not advised.

GARY EICHTEN: Is that true throughout the southeastern part, or are there little areas, at least, where there aren't quite so bad?

JOE FOLLANSBEE: Well, as far as I can tell, it's pretty much all over the southeastern area. Gary, the big story, though, I have to say, is power outages. We had a lot of ice on power lines and, of course, on trees with the branches over the power lines.

Governor Arne Carlson declared a state of emergency today in Freeborn and Mower counties because Electric Cooperative distribution systems were down in that Southern Minnesota area. Press aide Greg Frank says it was necessary to call a state of emergency because the only equipment available for repair work was in Wisconsin. And federal law requires that a state of emergency exists to transport the equipment across state lines.

Now, here in Rochester, there's anywhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people without power. Rochester Public Utilities, they serve the city itself. And they have 1,000 customers without power-- 700 people in one neighborhood. And there's another power company down here that at last report, which was late this morning, we haven't been able to get through since that time, as many as 3,000 people were without power.

GARY EICHTEN: Ouch, especially with a cold weather coming in.

JOE FOLLANSBEE: That's right. That's a big concern. One small town out here was without power for six hours now. They have power back, but we don't think everybody has their power on yet.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, keep us posted, Joe.

JOE FOLLANSBEE: OK.

GARY EICHTEN: Thanks a lot.

JOE FOLLANSBEE: You bet.

GARY EICHTEN: Joe Follansbee reporting from Rochester. John McTaggart joins us now from Collegeville, which, of course, is right outside of St. Cloud in the center of Minnesota. Conditions, how are they, John? Bad? Terrible? Not so bad? What do you think?

JOHN MCTAGGART: Well, I thought they were getting better. But here on the edge of the prairie, it quieted down for a while this afternoon, seemed to have let up. There was just some localized flurries. But it is kicking up quite a winter storm right now. The big news in Central Minnesota this afternoon is the wind.

After the heavy snowfall stopped around 1 o'clock, it took a bit of a breather and it just started snowing again in the last hour. But the wind has been incessant, and it's gusting to 35 miles an hour. Visibility in the country is nil.

And I just spoke with the St. Cloud Office of the Department of Transportation, and they are telling everyone to stay home unless it is an absolute emergency. They don't want to pluck any more people out of the ditch. And the snowplows don't want to have to maneuver their way around the cars trying to get to and from places.

GARY EICHTEN: Yeah, familiar story. Thanks, John.

JOHN MCTAGGART: You bet.

GARY EICHTEN: Appreciate it. John McTaggart, reporting from Collegeville. Cara Hirsch joins us now from Sioux Falls. And Cara, at least initially, it was thought that the southwestern part of our region was really going to get blasted. What is it like right now?

CARA HIRSCH: Well, right now, snow, or blowing snow is the biggest problem here, not a lot of buildings to block it. So the plows are out. And now the roads are drifting shut again. Interstate 90 is closed from Sioux Falls to Blue Earth, and Interstate 29 is closed from Sioux Falls to Sioux City, Iowa. That remains closed.

And the entrance ramps are barricaded. And I also talked to somebody in Windham. And local law enforcement officials there in Windham, Minnesota, have blocked the highways leading out of town. So no travel on any of the roads because of the blowing snow. We've got about a foot of snow pretty much in eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota.

GARY EICHTEN: So a foot of snow, which, by comparison, doesn't sound like a lot, but with all that wind, why, that really does cause a problem.

CARA HIRSCH: That's right. We're having winds gusting up to about 40/46 miles an hour throughout here. And when there's not much to stop it, it pretty much goes. And I've seen drifts about shoulder-high for me that's about 5 foot.

GARY EICHTEN: Delightful.

CARA HIRSCH: [LAUGHS]

GARY EICHTEN: Thanks, Cara.

CARA HIRSCH: Fine. Thank you.

GARY EICHTEN: Appreciate it. Cara Hirsch reporting from our station, KRSD, in Sioux Falls. Again--