‘Winter Happens’ as Storm Blankets the Plains in Snow

A gusty storm system piled up nearly a foot of snow across the northern Plains on Monday, shutting down highways and closing schools as it ended an unseasonable stretch of warm, dry weather.

Wet, blowing snow made highways from Wyoming to Minnesota dangerously slick and blotted out the landscape.

“It’s snowing like mad and it’s blowing like mad,” said Doreen Peppel of Naper, Neb. “My husband said we have 2-foot drifts in some places.”

About 140 miles of Interstate 80 were closed from Big Springs, Neb., west to Cheyenne, Wyo. So were various state and local highways.

One person was killed in an automobile accident on a snowy highway in northeastern Wyoming.

Winds gusting to 40 mph in Nebraska pushed a school bus off a road outside Broken Bow in the central part of the state, authorities said. Five students were treated for minor injuries.

Snow in Minneapolis delayed flights arriving from across the country. Northwest Airlines, which has its major hub in the city, canceled 72 flights in and out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a precaution, an airport spokeswoman said.

Dozens of schools closed and others opened late in South Dakota and Minnesota. Some schools shut in Nebraska, where some senior citizen meal deliveries were suspended.

Much of the region had been enjoying temperatures in the 50s and 60s the last several weeks. By Monday evening, the temperature in Minneapolis was 33 and falling.

“Winter happens,” Don Botz said in St. Paul. “It’s nothing new. We were spoiled until now.”

“A guy can’t complain. It is Minnesota, you know,” Gary Stolp said.

The storm system earlier dumped heavy snow on the mountains of California, Utah and Colorado.