20 Inches of Snow, And it's Not Winter Yet

A powerful snowstorm socked the upper Midwest on Saturday with as much as 20 inches of snow, forcing authorities to close state roads across five states as heavy winds made for treacherous driving conditions.

The storm started Friday in the Rocky Mountains and swept overnight into northern Nebraska and Iowa. By Saturday morning, the blizzard hit eastern South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota.

Winter storm advisories were posted Saturday for parts of northern Illinois, warning of blizzard conditions and winds of up to 50 mph overnight in the Quad Cities area.

With near whiteout conditions in many areas, Minnesota transportation officials closed westbound Interstate 90 from Albert Lea to the South Dakota border, pulled plows off roads in the southern part of the state and told drivers to stay home.

Between 8 and 18 inches of snow were expected in Minnesota, with the heaviest snowfall stretching from near Hutchinson and Mankato to the Twin Cities. Heavy snow also was falling in northern Iowa, where up to 10 inches were expected, and eastern South Dakota, where 5 to 8 inches were forecast.

The New York Giants are still trying to get to Minnesota for their game with the Vikings. The Giants-Vikings game was moved to Monday night because Minnesota had at least 15 inches of snow and wind gusting over 30 mph and the New York team was waiting it out in Kansas City. With close to a foot-and-a-half of blowing snow accumulating in the Twin Cities area throughout the day Saturday, the Giants’ charter flight was diverted to Kansas City instead. After hanging out in the terminal for a bit, the team then settled in to spend the night there, with an initial plan in place to fly to Minnesota on Sunday morning and make it to the stadium in time for regularly scheduled 1 p.m. EST kickoff. But the NFL made the announcement later Saturday night that the game was being moved.

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said on Twitter the team "monitored weather all week" and moved up the departure time by 3 1/2 hours Saturday. That didn’t prove to be enough of a head start to make it to Minneapolis before the airport shut down all runways.