MPR’s Bob Kelleher details the weather in Duluth as a second storm in week begins to pound the city. The storm is predicted to be particularly intense inland from Lake Superior, where the lake is expected to enhance both winds and snowfall.
If you are from Duluth, you remember it as the Blizzard of 2007. Between February 28th and March 2nd, a one-punch of storms dumped nearly two feet of snow. To add to the winter misery, intense winds off Lake Superior exceeded 50 mph in the Duluth area. Snowdrifts made local travel near impossible.
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BOB KELLEHER: By first light, things were already closing down in the Duluth area. Lighter-than-normal traffic crawled through blowing snow. Small drifts already snaked across lesser-traveled streets, while high winds rocked cars on the bridges between Duluth and Superior. Local television posted more than 30 school closing announcements in the area.
Duluth Superintendent Keith Dixon says schools doubtful for Friday.
KEITH DIXON: I don't see anything at this point, from what I can see, that would suggest that we're going to be able to have school tomorrow with the wind and the snow, the drifting.
BOB KELLEHER: In Duluth, the city's squad of snowplows is struggling to keep up. The city's snow-clearing fleet is half the size it was just 10 years ago, with fewer than 40 plows now on the streets. Duluth police have asked people to stay home. And according to Tom Elwell, with the Duluth Transit Authority, they're pulling the buses in this evening.
TOM ELWELL: We're going to suspend services at 5:55 tonight. And what that means is the last buses going east and west and up the hill will depart downtown, center part of downtown Duluth at 5:55.
BOB KELLEHER: A decision will be made early Friday about tomorrow's bus service. The city's senior meals programs were canceled today and neighborhood centers closed. [? Jolene ?] Bo, with Duluth's Parks and Recreation Department, says they even closed a municipal ski hill.
[? JOLENE BO: ?] It's just not safe out there for kids to be outdoors or skiing, everything. So even though it's a nice wintry day, it's not safe for some of these activities.
BOB KELLEHER: National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Miller says in the Duluth area, the storm will be most intense from about now and well into Friday, with an inch or two of snow each hour and winds of at least 30 miles per hour. But near Lake Superior, Miller says those winds will howl inland with gusts over 50 miles per hour.
DAN MILLER: Anybody with travel plans, if they get caught out in this, it is going to be a life-threatening situation, because it's not going to be easy to get help to you if you get stranded somewhere.
BOB KELLEHER: Miller says the second storm in a week packs a double threat from the snow falling now, and the snow that fell just a couple of days ago.
DAN MILLER: We do have a foot and a half to two feet of snow already on the ground from the storm last weekend, and most of the roads have snow piles on the sides of them, which makes a very natural snow fence to catch and create even higher drifts with this storm. And if you have very limited visibility when you're driving, you may not even see one of these drifts in front of you until you're stuck in it.
BOB KELLEHER: If things were moving slowly today, they might not move at all Friday, with life in the Twin Ports just snowed in place until the weekend. In Duluth, I'm Bob Kelleher. Minnesota Public Radio News.