The combination of a storm system that developed across the northern Rockies, and a southern storm system across Kansas, caused a large area of winter weather across the northern plains and upper midwest on March 10th.
The morning of March 10th, snow began to spread across western Minnesota where locally two to four inches fell, with the heaviest north of Benson. Southern and eastern Minnesota had a period of sleet, freezing rain and freezing drizzle develop, but ice accumulations were minimal and didn't exceed one tenth of an inch. The winter mixture quickly switched over to snow across the Twin Cities area by 1 pm, then moved northward where locally two to four inches fell around St. Cloud, Princeton and the Mille Lacs Lake area.
By the afternoon, the southern storm system began to interact with the northern system to develop an area of low pressure across west central Wisconsin. Wind speeds started to increase significantly across western Minnesota with frequent gusts of 30 mph was common. In addition, daytime temperatures continued to fall across western Minnesota with actually surface temperatures falling into the single digits by the afternoon. The increased wind speeds created wind chill values in the teens below zero across a wide area of west central Minnesota, along with winter storm and blizzard conditions that developed prior to 6 pm.
Another band of heavy snowfall developed across western Minnesota during the afternoon, and quickly moved across central and southern Minnesota. Locally one to three inches of snow fell with this band, along with reduced visibilities of one half mile or less. Once this band of snow went through the region, wind speeds increased along with temperatures falling into the single digits below zero across western and central Minnesota, to the single digits above zero across southern and east central Minnesota.
Light snow continued through the evening, but most of the accumulating snowfall stopped shortly after 8 pm. Blowing and drifting snow continued throughout the night with surface visibilities slowly improving after midnight.
Total snowfall amounts from this storm system ranged from two to four inches northwest of a Redwood Falls, to the western portions of the Twin Cities, to Mora. Four to six inches fell mainly northwest of a Montevideo to St. Cloud, to Mille Lacs Lake area. The heaviest occurred around the communities of Alexandria, Long Prairie and Little Falls where six to ten inches fell. The heaviest snowfall reported was in Millerville in northern Douglas County where 10.5 inches was measured.