Southern Minnesota has been struck with a blizzard warning from the National Weather Service ahead of a powerful spring storm that could dump more than a half-foot of snow and whip it around with winds up to 60 mph.

A classic springtime storm is packing high winds and snowfall in the upper Midwest, resulting in blizzard conditions for some areas.

Storm Lola will smash one side of the United States with blizzards while the other is set ablaze in near 100F winds. Torrential downpours and snow will drive through the west coast ahead of the weekend on the tail of a deep low-pressure cyclone.

With shovels, snowblowers and snowplows, Minnesotans got to work Wednesday digging out from a major late-winter storm that walloped southern and eastern parts of the state with heavy snow, howling winds and blizzard conditions.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has declared a peacetime emergency following a spring snowstorm that brought significant snowfall and blizzard conditions to the state Wednesday.

Blizzard conditions in parts of southern Minnesota made travel there dangerous Wednesday morning, the weather service office in the Twin Cities warned on social media. Heavy snow and strong northerly winds slowed travel across much of the Twin Cities, southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, the weather service said.

A mammoth and multifaceted storm – which was dealing wind, fire, choking dust and the threat of a blizzard – pummeled much of the country as it marched east.

Federal forecasters expect severe weather to wallop much of the Eastern Seaboard on Wednesday, from the Mid-Atlantic region to Jacksonville, Florida.