Another Winter Storm Hits The Midwest

Another winter storm system blanketed most of the Plains and Upper Midwest with snow and ice, with most of the snowfall in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Hundreds of flights were canceled Sunday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, officials said.

School systems that weren't closed for Presidents Day (Monday) were closed because of the storm.

Interstates looked like ice rinks and officials warned people to stay put as winds whipped the snow and reduced visibility. The snow began falling Sunday morning and continued until past midnight into Monday, a federal holiday.

In downtown Minneapolis, inline skating events at the Metrodome was canceled Sunday because of travel conditions and heating applied to the roof to melt snow created uncomfortably warm conditions for skating, an official said.

Up to a foot of snow fell in South Dakota and around 10 inches in southwest North Dakota, weather officials said. Portions of Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin were plagued by rain and ice glazing the highways and making travel treacherous. The icy mix was expected to push north and east Monday across southern Michigan, northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania, AccuWeather.com said.

Areas north of Chicago were expecting accumulating sleet and rain before it changed over to just rain, forecasters said.

The expected big snow failed to materialize in the Milwaukee area, which had more rain, sleet and freezing rain, making driving conditions sketchy, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Snow, freezing rain, sleet, and ice were expected to affect the central and northern part of Wisconsin Monday as well.