Storm blankets parts of Midwest with more than foot of snow

“The biggest impacts will be a shovelable snow storm for parts of the Midwest”, Otto said. Heitkamp disagrees. He says maybe the accumulations were a little bit off, but other predictions were pretty “spot on”.

In Iowa, Des Moines had recorded 6 inches by late Friday and amounts of a foot or more were common in northern Iowa. The National Weather Service said the snow would continue in IL and in on Saturday and move into MI.

The first Midwest winter storm of the season is bringing snow to Chicago west to Iowa. The Indiana Toll Road in the northern part of the state is banning triple-trailer trucks from 7 a.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday because of risky conditions.

While winter has not officially begun, the shovels and snow blowers were out from South Dakota through southern Minnesota, Iowa and southern Wisconsin to northern IL and Indiana. The weather service says rain and snow in the early evening will turn into wet snow through Saturday afternoon.

Bridger Wagner, 3, plays in the snow in front of his house during the first snow of the season Friday, November 20, 2015, in Sioux Falls, S.D.

A pedestrian crosses Lafayette Street through the first snowfall of the season in downtown Waterloo, Iowa, Friday, November 20, 2015.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Brad Temeyer says snowfall in Sioux Falls will dwindle in the afternoon. The airport had 4 inches of snow early Saturday. The storm kept three South Dakota college football teams – USD, SDSU, and USF- all cooling their spikes at the terminal.

A spokesman for the South Dakota Highway Patrol says troopers have been busy with weather-related crashes in the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas. He also says there’s an unusually drastic difference in snowfall between the northern and southern portions of South Dakota’s most populous city.

Heavy weekend snow – up to 10 inches – is in the forecast for MI, Wisconsin and northern IL.