Visibility was so bad on Wednesday that travel was not advised on most area roads and highways and Interstate 90 was closed from Frost west to Luverne. A car on a county road in this photo is barely visible through the blowing snow.

A late season blizzard caused havoc when it hit the southern half of Minnesota on Tuesday night and Wednesday, March 4 and 5.

The area had a lot of warning of the storm headed this way as forecasters predicted it was coming and officials put out a blizzard warning for this area and a winter storm warning for other areas.

It started as rain on Tuesday afternoon, but then turned into snow in the early evening hours of Tuesday. The snow kept up all night and into Wednesday morning.

Snow depths ranged from six to nine inches in the Faribault County area.

But, it was the wind that caused the most problems. The wind had gusts of up to 45 and 55 miles per hour throughout the night on Tuesday and almost all day on Wednesday.

Blue Earth Area and United South Central Schools, as well as most others in southern Minnesota, were already closed for Wednesday before the storm hit on Tuesday. Most schools were doing distance learning on Wednesday.

A BEA boys section tournament basketball game on Tuesday night was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at first, but then was moved up to 6 p.m. first and eventually to 5 p.m. to ensure that spectators and players could get home before the blizzard hit.

Many churches also canceled Ash Wednesday church services.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed Interstate 90 from Frost west to Luverne on Tuesday night and reopened it Wednesday afternoon. Many other state highways and other roads were termed to be “No travel advised” until about 3 p.m. Wednesday or later. With the high winds, travel was still treacherous.

Plows were out on Wednesday both in cities and towns in Faribault County and in the country. In Blue Earth, most streets were cleared by later Wednesday, but the large piles of snow in the middle of some streets were still being removed on Thursday and Friday.

By Thursday afternoon the sun was out and the snow was melting fast.

More possible snow was predicted for the Blue Earth area on Friday, as another storm system was hitting Iowa. But any snow was predicted to be light.