The chance that late fall snow will continue to blanket the Twin Cities remains at least through Wednesday, according to the weather service.
Snow finally accumulated to an amount that could be measured — albeit just a tenth of an inch — by early Friday afternoon at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Inland areas near the North Shore were hit particularly hard, with both Finland, Minn. and Duluth’s airport reporting 10 inches of snow as of 5 p.m. Friday.
There were reports of 217 crashes, 161 spinouts and vehicles in ditches statewide as of 8:45 p.m. Friday.
One of the crashes proved fatal when a semi truck skidded off a snow-covered bridge into a river.
The tractor-trailer driver lost control of the truck just before a bridge along snowy Interstate 35 near Scanlon, which is west of Duluth, about 4:30 a.m. The truck went over the bridge and into the St. Louis River, said Sgt. Neil Dickenson of the Minnesota State Patrol.
The driver’s body was found at about 9 a.m. He was a 44-year-old man from Duluth. His name has not been released.
Another fatal crash took place in Brainerd just after 9 a.m. In that incident, Alvaro Ambriz Rodriguez of Pierz, Minn. was driving southbound on Highway 25 near 30th Street when he lost control of his Kia while trying to pass another vehicle. The 26-year-old slid into oncoming traffic and was fatally struck by a semi in the northbound lane.
The semi-truck driver was uninjured. Both drivers were wearing seatbelts.
In the metro, snow that actually sticks has come earlier than usual this year. Measurable snowfall typically doesn’t fall in the Twin Cities until Nov. 4, according to the National Weather Service. The last couple years there wasn’t measurable snow until late November, and the last time measurable snow fell this early was in 2009.
Over the next week in St. Paul, the weather service forecasts a slight chance of snow on Sunday and Wednesday. As for Friday, they’re looking at up to an inch through the evening.
In addition to the snow up north, driving winds whipped up Lake Superior, damaging a lakefront boardwalk in Duluth, and
making rescue efforts hazardous.
Cloquet Area Fire District Chief Kevin Schroeder said that the winds and waves on the St. Louis River were too strong for the CAFD rapid deployment craft, so the St. Louis County sheriff’s office brought its larger water rescue boat while CAFD firefighters donned their waterproof water rescue suits to search the river on foot that morning.
Firefighters walked into the water “downshore from the bridges” to get the driver, Schroeder said, adding that the water was not shallow. Once the firefighters got the trucker to shore, the rescue boat took off to pick him up from the staging area near the River Inn in Scanlon.
“It’s not the worst but it ranks up there,” Schroeder said when asked about the rescue conditions with driving snow and wind.
“It could be colder,” said Carlton County Chief Deputy Brian Belich, who was assisting at the staging area.
“That’s the saving grace,” Schroeder agreed. “It could be below zero. The weather couldn’t get any worse, but at least we can work in these temperatures.”
The Associated Press and Forum News Services contributed to this report.