Webcam view of I-69 in Fort Wayne

At 12:18 p.m. the northern Indiana office of the National Weather Service issued an update to the Winter Storm Warning that remains in effect until 4 p.m. You can read the verbatim statement, but here’s a synopsis:

• Blowing and drifting snow will continue this afternoon….especially in open and rural areas, primarily affecting east-to-west roadways.
• Travel will be very difficult. Interstates 65, 69, 75 and 80 will be impacted. 
• Primary roads, including U.S. highways 6, 24, 30, 31 and 33 will be snow-covered and hazardous.
• Storm total snow accumulations are expected to be 7 to 12 inches.

As of 1 p.m., the official storm total snowfall at Fort Wayne International Airport was 9.6 inches. That’s 1.9 inches more than Fort Wayne’s normal snowfall for the entire month of February. It also makes this winter the second snowiest on record.

At 11:30 a.m., the City of Fort Wayne announced that street crews had plowed the main arterial streets and were salting them. Secondary streets should be completed by this afternoon and they will be moving into residential streets by late this afternoon. Crews will work through the night and into tomorrow on residential streets.

Crews were keeping up with the latest snow event through about 4 a.m., when a heavy snow dumped more than four additional inches of snow in a three hour period. During that time period drivers reported that as soon as they made one pass down a street it was covered again within minutes.