STAPLES TOPS MONDAY LIST
Storm moves out of state
The final results are in.
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It appears Staples led the state in snowfall, at least on Monday.
Staples residents started digging out Monday after 19 inches of snow. Duluth measured 18.2 inches.
Duluth's Roger Truscott says it's been a battle keeping up with the snow in Duluth, where Monday's 18.2 inches of white stuff broke a daily record for Jan. 26.
"Lots of shoveling and snowblowing and plowing," Truscott said. Despite the work load, the outdoor enthusiast and snowmobiler was thrilled.
Bryn (left) and Tatum Williams got a push from their father, Dale, as the duo slid down a hill in Staples Monday. Twenty inches of fresh snow fell, closing schools and creating a winter playground. (Dispatch Photos by Steve Kohls)
"It needs to be like this every year," Truscott said. "If you don't like the snow, there's a place called Florida."
A winter storm finally began to mosey out of Minnesota on Tuesday, after two days of snow dumping that amounted from 2 feet of snow in the state's northeastern portions to over 7 inches in the Twin Cities.
The National Weather Service reported Duluth's 18.2 inches of snow on Monday broke a 1916 mark of 4.1 inches for the day.
In other notable amounts since the storm's start Sunday, the weather service said New York Mills reported 17 inches, Little Falls received 14 inches, Detroit Lakes had 13 inches, St. Cloud got 8.5 inches while the Twin Cites weather service office in Chanhassen reported 7.6 inches.
But the heaviest snows were on the higher elevations in the northeast part of the state along Lake Superior.
A pair of horses walked through the heavy snow in a pasture east of Staples.
The weather service said the Duluth International Airport reported 24.8 inches of snow by Monday evening. And the 23.2 inches that fell before 4 p.m. was the third-heaviest 24-hour snow total on record in Duluth. The record was 25.4 inches set from Dec. 5-6, 1950.
Lower-elevation areas, such as downtown Duluth, received only 6-to-8 inches of snow, less than half the hilltop totals. The storm deposited anywhere from 11 to 20 inches in the Brainerd area of central Minnesota.
In St. Cloud, Phil Rogosheske was beside himself with the mounds of new snow. The grooming coordinator for the Nordic Ski Club of Central Minnesota said this is the winter he's been waiting for.
"I have to curb my enthusiasm," Rogosheske said. "I feel a little like Howard Dean after the Iowa caucuses."
The heavy snow caused more than 100 schools and school districts to either cancel or delay classes for Monday.
Joseph Amador dove for cover in the 20 inches of fresh snow in Staples Monday as his friend Elbert Gillespie showered him with handfuls of snow.
At least three deaths were attributed to the storm in Minnesota.
On Monday morning, a man in Oakport Township, which is north of Moorhead, became tangled in his small tractor as he was plowing snow from his driveway. The man, who was not identified, died at the scene, according to the Clay County sheriff's office.
A North Dakota man died Monday when a semi crossed the median on U.S. Interstate 94 near Monticello and crashed head-on into his car. Atilla Norman Noble, 65, of Crystal, N.D., died in the accident, which happened about 10:20 a.m. A passenger in his car, Mary Beth Noble, 62, was in serious condition. The State Patrol report didn't say whether they were husband and wife. The driver of the semi was not injured.
On Sunday, a pickup truck driven by Susan Herbert, 50, of Rush City, slid on the ice and crashed into an SUV that had slowed down because of heavy traffic, killing Herbert.
The accident, on southbound Interstate 35 near North Branch, which is about 40 miles north of St. Paul, caused a chain-reaction that injured four other people.