By Matt Russell
Post-Bulletin, Rocheser MN 

A heavy, wet snow took Rochester by surprise Friday and broke a 92-year-old record for Oct. 23.

More than 4.1 inches had fallen at Rochester International Airport by Friday evening,

A gallery of photos from the storm

The previous record for the date was 1 inch, set in 1917.

The hefty snowfall led to several traffic accidents and delayed both public school and Rochester City Lines buses Friday afternoon.

Widespread power outages resulted in Rochester as snow weighed down tree branches, bringing them into contact with power lines, Rochester Public Utilities spokesman Tony Benson said. He said the branches were particularly heavy because many still had leaves on them.

More than 7,400 RPU customers lost power, some for a couple of minutes and others for hours, Benson said.

"We have crews all over Rochester, and I don't think they're concentrated in one area specifically," Benson said Friday night.

The power outage resulted in school-age child care being canceled at several elementary schools in Rochester on Friday afternoon.

There were 20 to 30 accidents an hour reported in Rochester during the peak of the snowfall Friday afternoon, but none of the crashes resulted in major injuries, Rochester police Sgt. John Sherwin said.

The state patrol reported a head-on crash in Wabasha County after a vehicle lost control on snow-covered roads at milepost 65 on U.S. 61 at 3:51 p.m. Friday. A driver was ejected from one vehicle, and serious injuries resulted from the incident, according to the report.

Two people were involved in the accident, but names won't be released until today, the state patrol reported.

Area sheriff's departments reported few other problems from the snowfall, with scattered reports of minor accidents and vehicles sliding into ditches.

October has been a cold, wet, ugly mess, and it's expected to continue with the National Weather Service forecasting chances of rain Sunday and into the coming week.

For all but two days this month, the temperature has been below average, and for all but seven days, it has rained or snowed.

As of Thursday, the average temperature was 42.2 degrees, 7 degrees below normal. For the first 22 days, it's the third coldest October on record, behind 1917 and 1952.

The month is particularly painful after a September, when the average temperature was a balmy 62.6 degrees.

Post-Bulletin reporter John Weiss contributed to this story.

Storm blog replay:
Readers share storm observations and photos.

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