More than 15 inches of snow had fallen on St. Paul by Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service, and the drifting snow and high winds made travel close to impossible throughout the metro area. Transportation officials urged people to cancel all travel plans.

Around St. Thomas, the deep snow blocked some sidewalks and roads, and the blizzard-like conditions led St. Thomas to cancel all Saturday classes, the LSAT test scheduled to be held on campus, the Minneapolis-St. Paul campus shuttle service, and a number of on-campus athletic events.

The swimming and diving meet against St. John’s and the College of St. Benedict, which was supposed to be at 1 p.m., was canceled, as was the women’s basketball game against Concordia-Moorhead that was also supposed to start at 1 p.m. The men’s basketball away game at Hamline was also canceled. Dates for rescheduled games had not been set.

St. Paul is under a winter storm warning until 6 a.m. Sunday because the evening temperatures and the heavy winds are ushering in sub-zero windchills. Snow emergencies have been declared in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the MSP airport was even closed for part of the afternoon. Many airlines are still not allowing flights into or out of the Twin Cities, even though one runway is now open.

If the final snowfall tally is 16.8 inches or higher, it will set a new record as the fifth-biggest Twin Cities snowstorm since official records were started in 1891, according to the Star Tribune.