Community Corner

Rosemount Digging Out From Nearly 18 Inches of Snow

The weekend snow storm has tapered off, leaving yet another clean-up job.

Is it spring yet?

On Tuesday morning, the residents of Rosemount continued to dig out from the latest of a string of big snow storms this winter. According to the National Weather Service, the latest storm made the 2010-2011 winter the tenth snowiest on record. But if you examine historic snowfall amounts just through Feb. 20, this season is the third snowiest on record, only slightly behind the winters of 1981-82 and 1966-67.

The snow began falling in Rosemount at about 10:00 a.m. on Sunday and by the time it ended Monday evening, several local National Weather Service observation posts were reporting total accumulations of nearly 18 inches.

Rosemount resident April Evans said she was scared to leave her house Sunday, due to blowing snow and the icy raods. "I saw plows on the street at the end of my subdivision, but I'm not sure how much they were able to accomplish," said Evans. "As soon as they drove through, the wind blew the snow back across the road."

Police chief Gary Kalstabakken said the weather caused at least 14 incidents of drivers running off the road. There were also at least eight weather-related accidents on the city streets during the storm. "Some drivers had to be out and got caught by the difficult driving conditions," said Kalstabakken. "But I suspect some people shouldn't have been on the road in weather like this."

Steady winds and snowfall rates that approached an inch or more an hour forced Rosemount High School to cancel a Sunday matinee of the play The Diviners. By mid-afternoon on Sunday, the MVTA suspended bus service in most of the south suburbs.

Rosemount Public Works crews were at work cleaning and salting the city streets throughout Sunday and Monday. They plowed three times over a two-day period and are expected to resume work early Tuesday morning, focusing on side streets and secondary trails.

On Monday afternoon, Minnesota Energy Resources in Rosemount warned homeowners and businesses to keep the area around natural gas meters clear of snow and debris.

According to the utility, accumulations of ice and snow can lead to a buildup of natural gas.

If you take any photos of the snowfall in your neighborhood, email them to rick.ellis@patch.com.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here