By Bill McAuliffe, Paul Walsh and Tim Harlow

Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Minnesota State Patrol on Friday warned drivers to park their vehicles this weekend after heavy snow and ice left roads in miserable — and potentially deadly — condition across the eastern half of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Standing near sun-drenched Interstate 94 and Hwy. 280 in Minneapolis, where semitrailer trucks struggled to get a grip, Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said, “We want to stress that not only should people not travel [Friday], but these conditions will not be getting much better this weekend” because of strong winds and plummeting temperatures that will preserve potentially lethal stretches of ice.

“If you don’t absolutely need to travel through the weekend, don’t do it,” he said.

From 2 p.m. Thursday to 6 p.m. Friday, the state patrol responded to 685 crashes in the metro area alone, as well as nearly 2,000 spun-out or off-the-road vehicles, 66 semitrailer truck jackknives and 809 stalled vehicles. Metro Transit reported at 6 p.m. that 60 percent of its buses were running behind schedule, with an average delay of 12 ½ minutes.

Metro commutes through the day ran about triple the normal time, said Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) information officer Don Zenanko. While conditions improved somewhat during the day, the afternoon rush hour was still plagued by trucks struggling up ramps and other inclines, as well as crashes and stalled vehicles. Streets and highways washboarded with ice and compacted snow made driving a slow shimmy-shake.

“I’d rate it at 12. It’s off the charts,” Zenanko said. “It’s been one of the more challenging days I’ve had in 20 years of watching traffic.”

Patrol Lt. Col. Matt Langer said the patrol is “receiving reports from veteran troopers in several areas of the state of conditions that are as bad as they’ve seen in 25 years. It is simply too dangerous right now, and MnDOT needs room to clear the roads of snow and ice.”

The new snow in the Twin Cities — 9.9 inches for the official total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport but 11 inches at Elk River and other suburbs — promptly froze atop rain and slush that fell Thursday on highways and freeways, quickly becoming packed and icy.