Winds create giant drifts
Blizzard strands motoristsWORTHINGTON — The parking lot was full late Tuesday and early Wednesday at the Blue Line Travel Center — and mostly empty at many other places around town — thanks to blizzard-like conditions that blew through the region.
By: Ryan McGaughey, Worthington Daily Globe
- Snow face
- Snow thrower
WORTHINGTON — The parking lot was full late Tuesday and early Wednesday at the Blue Line Travel Center — and mostly empty at many other places around town — thanks to blizzard-like conditions that blew through the region.
Snow had stopped falling in most places before sunrise Wednesday, but gusty winds piled drifts throughout southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa and made wind chills dangerously chilly.
The Blue Line Travel Center, located on the eastern edge of Worthington along Minnesota 60, welcomed conditions that brought up to six inches of snow and a peak wind gust of 53 mph at 4:35 a.m., according to Tim Masters, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“We had a lot of truckers parked last night,” said Brenda Boje, manager of the Blue Line’s C-store. “Our parking lot was full.”
That’s nothing new for the Blue Line, which sits close to an access ramp for Interstate 90. No travel was advised for both Minnesota 60 and I-90 during Tuesday night’s storm; in fact, travel was still not recommended Wednesday afternoon.
“When people start saying the roads are closing, they’ll stop and stay here until the roads open up,” Boje said. “People will stop and go in the restaurant, which is open all the time. … A lot of them were watching TV last night up in our truckers’ lounge.”
Boje wasn’t even supposed to work Tuesday, but came in because of a co-worker’s illness. She made it down from Slayton for work, but ended up staying in Worthington through the night.
“I was here from 2 p.m. until about 11:30, and then stayed in town with another co-worker,” she said. “I wasn’t driving home.”
People weren’t driving around much Wednesday, at least around Worthington. Northland Mall was very quiet, with many prospective shoppers apparently opting to stay home.
“You’ll see some people walking by, and there will be customers, and then like right now there’s nobody,” said Laura Redenius of Worthington, a salesperson at DaLon Diamonds.
Redenius said her employer opened its doors at 10 a.m. Wednesday, which is normal. While many businesses in the mall opened as usual — and some even earlier for the holidays — a 5 p.m. closure was mandatory later in the day.
“Because they extended the blizzard warning, the janitor came around and said we were closing at 5,” Redenius said. “Sometimes they have it (closing) optional, but not today.”
One Northland Mall retailer, JC Penney, didn’t open at all Wednesday. Redenius said being open at this time of year — if only for limited hours — was important for DaLon Diamonds.
“It’s not like it’s January; it’s the Christmas season,” she said. “We want to be open to the customers. … Yesterday we were actually pretty busy, and people kept coming in last-minute until we closed.”
In downtown Worthington, traffic was light early Wednesday afternoon. Maria Thier, who owns Lit’l Wizards on 10th Street, said she opened her doors at noon; some other businesses on her block were already open.
“We’ve had some stragglers here and there,” Thier said of her customer volume.
While Worthington’s snowfall came in at 6 inches, according to the National Weather Service, communities to the south and east received between 7 and 10 inches of snowfall, Masters said. Most winds peaked between 40 and 60 mph, with a high gust of 59 mph recorded at 5:45 a.m. in Lakefield.
Wind chills of 20 to 30 below zero were predicted for Wednesday. The forecast doesn’t get much better today, with a high of 7 above predicted along with afternoon winds between 15 and 25 mph.
A slight warming trend is predicted, with Friday’s high forecast at 9 and Saturday’s at 15.
Tags: news, worthington, drifts, wind, weather, blizzard
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