Sorry about that. Usually de-icing at MSP is very efficient with the drive through a car wash setup, but sometimes it does get backed up. With blowing snow, they're probably alternating between using and plowing runways, although MSP does have an impressive amount of snow removal equipment. There's also some recent high tech toy that measures how slippery the runway is so that pilots don't get nasty surprised and go off the runway.

Hope no one here lost their wallet on the ATL rental car train today. If you did, I found it when boarding at the rental car facility. After an unsuccessful search I turned it in at the SP baggage check.

SNOW stories: The governor declared a disaster/emergency and sent national guard troops out to rescue folks trapped on roads in the whiteout. It looked grim and about 250 people spent the night in two armories on cots. There are still roads closed as far north as Cannon Falls (for people who know the area), while I-35 (north south, starting at Duluth and going through the Twin Cities then Des Moines, etc.) is closed from about an hour south (where 8' snowdrifts are reported) of Minneapolis to Ames (home of Iowa State MOO and about a half hour north of Des Moines and the I-80 intersection), while I-90 (east west, from Sioux Falls in the southeastern corner of SD to Madison) is now closed from just west of I-35 to just east of Rochester (MN). It's not as clear and sunny as yesterday, but it's hard to imagine that there are such bad whiteout conditions not far away. Everyone southeast of the metro area is still being told to stay home, stay off the roads, shelter in place, etc.

This one's a bit funny: Rochester MN airport (in the middle of the blizzard followed by the whiteout) has reopened their runway but the airport still cannot operate any commercial flights because TSA employees have been ordered not to report to work. [Apparently ATC is fully present and ready to go.] I don't know whether any DL aircraft overnight there and would have had stranded crew, who presumably would still be stuck there from Saturday, which probably has a somewhat light schedule.