Photo by Deb Gau Road crews clear snow off Marshall’s Main Street during a lull in the storm Wednesday morning. Dump trucks lined up to be filled by a large snowblower moving down the street. The Marshall area received about 4-5 inches of snow in the first wave of Winter Storm Olive.

MARSHALL — Winter Storm Olive passed through southwest Minnesota on Wednesday and into early this morning leaving a path of deep snow, icy roads and low visibility.

While more falling snow is unlikely today, residents busy digging out driveways and sidewalk will be battling blowing snow and falling temperatures, the National Weather Service said.

A snowfall total of about 4-5 inches was reported in the Marshall area on Wednesday morning. The weather service also forecast Marshall could receive an additional 13 to 17 inches of snow through Thursday morning.

Blowing snow was the main hazard on Wednesday, however. By Wednesday evening, Minnesota Department of Transportation advised no travel in Lyon County due to whiteout conditions. Roads from U.S. Highway 14 south were closed in Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone, Nobles and Rock Counties.

Marshall would likely see the most snow accumulation between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, said Peter Rogers, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Sioux Falls.

“The problem (Thursday) will be continuing breezy conditions and reduced visibility,” Rogers said. Temperatures will also drop. Friday’s high temperature is expected to be 3 degrees above zero, with wind chills of around 30 degrees below zero, he said.

Weather and road conditions led many area schools, businesses and even clinics to close down on Wednesday. In addition to the closures, many area churches canceled Ash Wednesday services.

“It’s hard, because we don’t like canceling things,” said Rev. Tony Stubeda, pastor of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Marshall.

Holy Redeemer was able to hold one Ash Wednesday Mass early in the morning, before canceling other services due to the weather.

“After a point, you have to say, ‘What’s prudent?'” Stubeda said.

Holy Redeemer was able to make that Ash Wednesday Mass available online for parishioners to watch at home, and Stubeda said he would also hold a Spanish-language prayer service on Wednesday.

Winter weather has posed challenges for scheduling religious education and other church events this year, Stubeda said.

“We’ve been hit by so many cancellations,” he said. “It’s been an unusual year.”

Some businesses in Marshall stayed open on Wednesday, but were still keeping an eye on the weather.

“We’ve stayed open so far,” Marshall Hy-Vee store director Matt Parkhurst said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll have to see what the weather is the rest of today and tonight.”

Parkhurst said he hoped the main grocery portion of Hy-Vee and the gas station could continue to stay open as long as it was safe to do so.

“We provide a service for the community,” he said.

It also helped that the Marshall location had a good veteran crew of employees, he said.

Parkhurst said customers had definitely been preparing for this week’s weather in the days leading up to the storm. As people became aware of the weather forecast, he said, “It continued to get busy. Monday was a very busy day.”