Three and one-half inches of snow was the official word on what happened Thursday after a forecast of “partly cloudy.”

It might have seemed like more, said Jerry Zwach, who took the reading at the KNUJ transmitter gauges, but it only took down to .22 inch of precipitation. Snow here started at mid-morning, coming heaviest about 5 p.m. Thursday and continuing into the night.

Although snow had not been in the forecast, several local bird watchers took note of the flurry of bird activity around their feeders early Thursday and did a little predicting of their own.

TEMPERATURES were mild – just under freezing, at 31 to 28 degrees, and coated the trees. A brisk wind this morning, however, shook much of the snow off trees and shrubs.

Snowboots, snowmobiles and Christmas skis came out from under the Christmas trees and traffic was heavy on the sliding hills of Westside Park.

Students in the Park and Recreation Department’s cross-country skiing class had almost scratched the class from their evening calendars when the snow arrived. Class, taught by Andy Biebl, was held under the lights at Johnson Field.

NEW ULM and Brown County officials were taking the first major snow of the season calmly this morning.

City Manager Richard Salvati said crews would be “generally plowing all the streets” during the day, “I think they should get pretty far along.”

A decision was to be made this afternoon on whether to go to snow emergency plowing tomorrow with tickets issued for cars parked on streets earmarked for plowing. Such emergency plowing is announced over KNUJ radio.

If a snow emergency is announced the downtown streets are plowed first, then residential streets.

New Ulm Police issued nine tickets to snowmobilers Thursday night for such things as being on prohibited roads (county or state highways in town), operating after the midnight curfew,speeding, no registration displayed. Speed limit for snowmobiles is 10 miles an hour, according to city ordinance.

BROWN COUNTY roads are “not too bad, the north-south roads are covered with snow but none of them are blocked,”said Leonard Wannarka, highway department maintenance foreman.

Wannarka said county crews started plowing at 4 a.m. today and it usually takes about eight hours to get the major county roads cleared. He said if the wind keeps drifting the snow throughout the day there will probably be snow on the roads past that time.

BLOWING AND drifting snow was reported this morning in the Madelia area. No traffic accidents had been reported at presstime, however.

A general three-to five-inch snowfall across southern Minnesota continued to cause travel problems today, although the snow diminished to flurries in most of the state.

Winds were increasing and shifting to the northwest, causing ground drifting over much of the state. Winds were expected to be northwesterly 14 to 28 miles per hour over most of the state by afternoon.

Sheriff’s departments throughout the area reported an estimated snow depth from 4 to 6 inches with the heaviest snowfall apparently occurring in the Nicollet County and Mankato areas.

Renville County Sheriff’s Department reported blowing and drifting earlier this morning with wind diminishing at mid morning.

Icy snow-packed roads were reported throughout the Journal area with the High-way Patrol office handling several incidents of cars sliding into the ditch.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Jan. 3, 1975