Image courtesy of National Weather Service, Chanhassen/Twin Cities
On Saturday and Sunday, March 14-15, 2026, a powerful regional winter storm lashed southern Minnesota with heavy snow, sleet, isolated thunderstorms, and strong winds, leading to some of the state's largest snowfall totals observed away from Lake Superior in the last decade, along with impossible travel from whiteout conditions and widespread school cancellations.
Minnesota was still recovering from powerful winds and a lakeshore blizzard as the weekend began. A sprawling area of low pressure over much of the northern US Rockies early on Saturday pulled moisture into into the region, where cold air had settled in following Friday's weather system. By Saturday afternoon, a narrow band of light snow developed from west to east across Minnesota, reaching the Twin Cities around 4 PM. The snow band widened and drifted northward slightly, covering the central third of the state by early evening.
The low pressure area moved out of the Rockies and began concentrating in Nebraska later on Saturday, eventually swooping into northern Missouri overnight, before hooking northeastward through Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan on Sunday. This path allowed the system to intensify as it fed on warm air and moisture to its south, colder air to its north, and strong winds aloft.
The evening band of snow over central Minnesota continued through the night with light to moderate accumulations, but the main event developed as an area of thunderstorms moved northeastward out of Iowa, leading to heavy thundersnow as it reached the colder air over far southern Minnesota. The thunder and lightning eventually subsided, but heavy snow continued through the night in roughly the same areas. Snowfall rates reached 2-3 inches per hour at times, and areas south and southeast of the Twin Cities reported 12-18 inches of snow by morning.
The main burst of heavy snow passed into Wisconsin during the morning but areas of light to moderate snow continued over the southeastern half of Minnesota throughout the day. Winds increased as the main system intensified rapidly to the southeast, with frequent gusts between 40 and 55 mph over southwest and southern Minnesota, and 30-45 mph gusts over much of the rest of the state, including areas that received the heaviest snow.
The combined snow and wind caused a complete shutdown of highways in southwestern Minnesota, with other roads closed in the south and southeast. Schools were closed for Monday across the Twin Cities and parts of southern and southeastern Minnesota.
Snowfall totals were particularly high in Wabasha County, where over 18 inches of snow fell. A CoCoRaHs observer near Kellogg reported 25.0 inches. This appears to be the highest snowfall reported at any Minnesota station not influenced by Lake Superior since the great Thunder Blizzard of April 2018 dropped 26.5 inches on Canby and 25 inches on Tracy, MN.
Other totals in southern and southeastern Minnesota included 16 inches at Hastings and Elgin, 14.2 inches at the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen, and 12.4 inches at Rochester. The Twin Cities airport recorded 8.9 inches, Saint Cloud received 4.9 inches, and Duluth, which was merely brushed by the storm, picked up two inches.
As heavy as some of the snows in Minnesota were, they were even heavier in central and northeastern Wisconsin, where thousands of square miles (roughly 10% of the state) received 20-35 inches. The storm produced some of the largest snowfall totals on record in that state.
March 16, 2026
KAB