WILLMAR -- The Minnesota Department of Transportation is advising no travel on southwest Minnesota state highways in 12 counties, where roads are completely snow and ice covered and blowing snow and reduced visibility are creating hazardous driving conditions.
The affected roads are included in the following areas:
- Western and southern portions of Chippewa County
- Kandiyohi County – east and south of Blomkest
- Lac qui Parle County
- Lincoln County
- Lyon County
- Meeker County – Highway 4, south of Cosmos
- Meeker County – Highway 7
- Meeker County – Highway 15, south of Dassel
- McLeod County
- Murray County
- Pipestone County
- Redwood County
- Renville County
- Yellow Medicine County
The Lac qui Parle County Sheriff has issued a no travel advisory for all county highways and roadways. Falling and blowing snow has reduced visibility to a quarter mile or less with whiteouts in open country. Accumulating heavy snow has made travel difficult to impossible at times. Additional accumulations of up to 18 inches and high winds are expected through Friday morning. The sheriff is asking people to remain off the roads unless in an emergency situation.
According to mnDOT, "no travel advised" means that the roadway has deteriorated and/or visibility has been reduced to the point that it is very dangerous to travel; there are reports of intermittent white out conditions; and, some weather conditions can be severe enough that road treatments, such as salt or sand, are not effective.
Motorists are advised not to travel in these areas until conditions improve.
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The public can view winter road conditions from plow cameras available through the www.511mn.org website. Please note that not all plows have cameras. Road conditions on major highways can also be viewed through the Road Weather Information System (RWIS), which is also part of 511.
