A historic late-season, multi-day winter storm developed rapidly across the central Plains on Wednesday, April 10. This system spiraled several periods of precipitation through the region. The leading precipitation on April 10 was a mix of rain, freezing rain and sleet from far eastern South Dakota through the Interstate 90 areas of southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa, changing to snow to the north and west. There were even a few elevated thunderstorms which occurred overnight on April 10-11 and produced some near severe hail, which actually occurred after some initial wintry precipitation. Significant icing was centered around 30 miles either side of the Interstate 90 corridor, with as much as a third to three-quarters inch ice accumulation.
Heavy snowfall developed from the early morning of April 11 and continued into the early morning of April 12 across much of southeast South Dakota into northern portions of southwest Minnesota, which accumulated to 1 to 2 feet during the storm. The most persistent snowfall occurred for areas west to north of Sioux Falls, but even there, a brief period of freezing rain or sleet occurred at some point ahead of the main upper trough passage.
The other aspect of this storm was the intense winds, which gusted at the peak from 40 to 60 mph, producing widespread blizzard conditions across southeast South Dakota and southwest Minnesota. Considerable power outages occurred as transmission lines succumbed to the ice accumulation and wind.  At the peak, electric companies and cooperatives estimated as many as 25,000 customers were without power.  Many areas were without power for a day or two due to the intensity of the storm.
In fact, the strong winds lofted dust from the Texas/Oklahoma panhandles which caused some of the snowfall toward the latter portions of the event to fall with a brownish color.  Ironically, the blizzard postponed the statewide tornado warning drill which was a part of Minnesota Severe Weather Awareness Week.

Blizzard in PIPESTONE, MINNESOTA
From 11-APR-19 02:00:00 to 11-APR-19 13:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 485.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: AWOS

Blizzard conditions and ice accumulations led to a shutdown of government offices and schools, and travel was not recommended with many roads closed due to the widespread whiteout conditions. Storm-total snowfall from 4 to 10 inches occurred, with 6.0 inches near Edgerton and 5.5 inches at Pipestone. With winds gusting at times from 45 to 55 mph, many areas had snow drifts of several feet, making roads impassable. Ice accumulation from a tenth to a third of an inch occurred, and helped to produce scattered power outages as wind increased. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Blizzard in COTTONWOOD, MINNESOTA
From 11-APR-19 02:00:00 to 11-APR-19 10:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 380.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: AWOS

Blizzard conditions led to a shutdown of government offices and schools, and travel was not recommended with many roads closed due to the widespread whiteout conditions. Storm-total snowfall from 4 to 10 inches occurred, with 5.1 inches at Windom. With winds gusting at times from 40 to 50 mph, many areas had snow drifts of several feet, making roads impassable. Ice accumulation from one-quarter to one-half inch occurred, and helped to produce scattered power outages as snowfall and wind increased. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Blizzard in MURRAY, MINNESOTA
From 11-APR-19 03:00:00 to 11-APR-19 13:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 648.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Blizzard conditions led to a shutdown of government offices and schools, and travel was not recommended with many roads closed due to the widespread whiteout conditions. Storm-total snowfall from 4 to 10 inches occurred, with 8.0 inches at Lake Wilson and 7.6 inches 4 miles northwest of Currie. With winds gusting at times from 40 to 50 mph, many areas had snow drifts of several feet, making roads impassable. Ice accumulation from one-quarter to one-third of an inch occurred, and helped to produce scattered power outages as snowfall and wind increased.  Highway 59 and 30 were both closed on April 11 and early April 12 due to power lines down on the roadway. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Ice Storm in JACKSON, MINNESOTA
From 10-APR-19 15:00:00 to 11-APR-19 15:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 2.76M
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Ice accumulated to one-half to three quarters of an inch. As winds increased during the night of April 10 into early April 11 with gusts reaching 45 to 50 mph at times, power poles and transmission lines bore the brunt of the worst conditions. Over 1000 power poles were damaged and several hundred miles of transmission lines downed by the weight of the ice accumulation and stress of the high winds. Many roads were closed, including U.S. Highway 71, State Highway 86, and Interstate 90 due to power structures across roadways. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Ice Storm in NOBLES, MINNESOTA
From 10-APR-19 15:00:00 to 11-APR-19 15:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 877.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Ice accumulated to one-half to three quarters of an inch. As winds increased during the night of April 10 into early April 11 with gusts reaching 45 to 50 mph at times, power poles and transmission lines bore the brunt of the worst conditions. Several hundred power poles were snapped by the weight of the ice accumulation and stress of the high winds, with more than 75 miles of power line down.  Many roads were closed, including U.S. Highway 59, due to power structures across roadways. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Ice Storm in ROCK, MINNESOTA
From 10-APR-19 15:00:00 to 11-APR-19 15:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 602.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Ice accumulated to one-half to three quarters of an inch. As winds increased during the night of April 10 into early April 11 with gusts reaching 40 to 50 mph at times, power poles and transmission lines bore the brunt of the worst conditions. Warming shelters were set up in several communities which were without power for a day or two, due to more than 100 power poles snapped by the weight of the ice accumulation and stress of the high winds. Damage costs are rough estimates due to utility costs.

Blizzard in LYON, MINNESOTA
From 11-APR-19 02:00:00 to 11-APR-19 14:00:00 (CST-6)
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Department of Highways

Blizzard conditions led to a shutdown of government offices and schools, and travel was not recommended with many roads closed due to the widespread whiteout conditions. Storm-total snowfall from 10 to 17 inches occurred, with 13.6 inches at Marshall and 11.0 inches at Ghent. With winds gusting at times from 40 to 55 mph, many areas had snow drifts of several feet, making roads impassable. Ice accumulation up to a tenth of an inch occurred, and helped to produce spotty power outages as snowfall and wind increased.

Blizzard in LINCOLN, MINNESOTA
From 11-APR-19 02:00:00 to 11-APR-19 16:00:00 (CST-6)
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Department of Highways

Blizzard conditions led to a shutdown of government offices and schools, and travel was not recommended with many roads closed due to the widespread whiteout conditions.  Storm-total snowfall from 10 to 20 inches occurred, with 14.0 inches at Ivanhoe. With winds gusting at times from 40 to 60 mph near Lake Benton and Hendricks, many areas had snow drifts of several feet, making roads impassable. Ice accumulation up to a tenth of an inch occurred, and helped to produce spotty power outages as snowfall and wind increased.