To the cheers of schoolchildren, the snowstorm that hit the Albert Lea area prompted superintendents to dismiss classes Monday and delay them today.

Snowplows were out this morning, getting roads ready for the morning commute.

About 4 inches of snow fell Monday on Albert Lea. Interstate 35 travelers to the north faced slick roads because of packed-snow and to the south they faced slick roads because of icy conditions. The snow blew, but seemed worse to the north.

Dart Transit Co. trucker Rick Bartlett of Columbus, Ohio, decided to get off the freeways and stay in Albert Lea for the night.

He said visibility was limited and roads were slick. He was taking an empty rig from Eagan to LaCrosse, Wis., then was to head south to St. Louis.

Considering the travel conditions, seeing cars in the ditch, hearing about a jackknifed semi on Interstate 90 in eastern Freeborn County and knowing his rig slid a few times, he decided to stop driving and wait out the storm at Trail’s Travel Center. He intended to sleep in his rig’s sleeper and wait for directions from Dart. It was his first trip to Minnesota this winter.

Traveler Jeff Morrison of Omaha was dining at Trail’s Restaurant on Monday. The facilities manager for a computer company was headed to Minneapolis as part of a company expansion.

He said Interstate 80 from Omaha to Des Moines, Iowa, was OK, but he witnessed at least 30 cars in the ditch on Interstate 35 between Des Moines and Albert Lea. He described the roadway as icy and slick but intended to keep heading north Monday afternoon after he finished his meal.

Sherrie Hernandez of Northwood, Iowa, needed to have four teeth pulled in Rochester. She went Sunday evening with her 5-year-old son, Christian Hernandez, and Jackie Cronk of Northwood, and had the oral surgery Monday morning.

Cronk drove westward to Albert Lea on their way home and said the storm let up a bit near Austin. They decided to eat at Trail’s before getting back to Northwood.

“It was bad out there by Rochester,” Cronk said.

The Minnesota State Patrol and the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office dealt with five wrecks on I-35 and I-90 during Monday’s storm. There were several traffic tie-ups in Albert Lea, too, including a semi getting stuck on East Main Street that caused traffic delays.

Schoolchildren across the region got out of school early. Ten-year-old Brett Peterson and his brother, 8-year-old Evan, played in the snow Monday afternoon near their home on Fountain Street.

They go to school in Owatonna, and Brett said the students in his fourth-grade class were thrilled to hear school was being let out early.

“All of the kids in my classroom were running around the classroom screaming,” he said.

Albert Lea Area Schools closed four hours early. Many schools in the area dismissed before noon, with Alden-Conger at 9:30 a.m., Glenville-Emmons 9:45 a.m., Northwood-Kensett at 9:30 and 9:45 a.m., and NRHEG and Lake Mills at 10 a.m. Schools further west like Austin and Stewartville closed two hours early.

Owatonna, Southland, Riceville, and Blooming Prairie schools closed at 10:30 a.m. The Riverland Community College campus closed at 2 p.m.

When schools are closed early because of weather, Dawn Fleek, a juvenile probation officer at the Freeborn County Courthouse, said she often takes her daughter to work for a few hours.

On days when school is let out early, Fleek said some of her clients don’t attend meetings that are usually in the afternoon when schools is out, so her daughter will usually only be there a few hours, Fleek said.

“If she comes here and draws or something, I can still get my reports done,” Fleek said. “But I would have to figure something out to see clients because she can’t be in here. So I’d either have to reschedule my appointments for this afternoon or find a place for her to go.”

“This morning when we went to school, I said, ‘I bet you’re out of school; you’ll have to come to work with me.’ She said, ‘Yay!’” Fleek said.

People in southern Minnesota woke up this morning to frigid temperatures. The region was in a wind chill advisory. At 8 a.m. today, the air temperature at the Albert Lea Municipal Airport was 18 degrees below zero, with a wind chill factor of 28 below.

This morning, area schools beginning two hours late were Albert Lea, Alden-Conger, Blooming Prairie, Northwood-Kensett, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, Glenville-Emmons, Hollandale Christian School, Lake Mills, St. Theodore Catholic School and United South Central.

More snow is forecast for tonight as a second Alberta clipper moves through. The National Weather Service predicted between 3 and 5 inches. It, too, will have a strong northwest wind.

— Tribune writers Tim Engstrom, Ed Shannon and Jason Schoonover contributed to this report.