By: Janice Dean, Travis Fedschun, Brandon Noriega
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An early-season snowstorm dumped a record-breaking amount of snow across Minnesota on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands and leading to hundreds of accidents.
The National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office for the Twin Cities said that 7.9 inches of snow fell at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, which broke a previous daily record of three inches set back on Oct. 20, 1916.
>>"We had record-breaking snow, snow totals here across the Northern Rockies, the Northern Plains, the Upper Midwest, Minnesota receiving over 8 inches of snow and another batch of snow is on the way," Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean said on "Fox & Friends."
The storm was also the second-largest October snowstorm on record.
Across the Twin Cities, there was a swath of 4 to 6 inches of snowfall, which made roadways slick.
The Minnesota State Patrol said that troopers responded to a number of crashes, spinouts, and vehicles off the road in central Minnesota, especially along Interstate 94.
e Patrol said that troopers responded to 493 crashes statewide from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Some 48 of those crashes involved injuries, including one serious injury. No fatalities were reported.
In addition to the crashes, troopers also responded to 614 vehicle spinouts and 22 semi-trucks that jackknifed on area roadways.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took to Twitter to urge motorists to drive safe and "take care of yourselves and neighbors."
>>"Minnesotans are ready for winter," he said. "When it snows we usually just build snowmen."
The early season snowstorm caused closures across the area. In Minneapolis, the city's absentee ballot drop off locations closed early at 3 p.m. so election workers and voters could get home safe, FOX9 reported.
The storm also caused power outages throughout the region.
Xcel Energy told FOX9 about 8,000 customers in the Twin Cities metro area were without power late Tuesday. At the peak, about 33,500 customers were impacted by the outage.
Record-breaking snowfall will continue over the Rockies into the Northern Plains and through the Upper Midwest from Wednesday into Thursday.
Some areas could receive over 8 inches of new snow where winter storm watches have been posted.
Expect difficult travel with poor visibility in these regions as gusty winds over 35 mph and a widespread area of 6 to 12 inches of new snow will fall.
>>"This snow could actually go into the foot or more range," Dean said Wednesday.
The cold air setting the stage for all this snow will plunge as far south as Texas on Friday.
Showers and thunderstorms will bring heavy rain at times over the Great Lakes and Mid-Mississippi Valley.
Widespread showers and thunderstorms are also moving into South Florida with heavy rain and the risk of flash flooding.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/minnesota-snowstorm-snow-record-minneapolis-weather-state-patrol-highway-crashes-spinouts