While a Colorado low is just skimming southern Manitoba, it's having major impacts just south of the border, and travellers should think twice before heading south.

So far Grand Forks, N.D., has received at least nine inches (22 centimetres) of wet, heavy snow, and there's no sign of it letting up. "It's big, ol' fat flakes," Josh Jones of Your Q-FM in Grand Forks tells Golden West. "Some parts of the city seem to have closer to a foot of snow and it's still coming down."

Fargo, N.D.'s mayor, Dr. Tim Mahoney, declared a snow emergency on Tuesday evening, allowing the City to close all non-emergency offices for Wednesday, Dec. 14.

A winter storm warning is in effect for most of North Dakota. Many areas have also received freezing rain along with heavy snow. That resulted in the N.D. Department of Transportation (DOT) issuing travel not advised recommendations for most major highways in the entire state. I-94 has also been closed from the Minnesota border, west to Dickinson.

The DOT has also issued a ban on all oversized traffic until further notice.

Periods of heavy snow are expected to continue across the U.S.A. northern plains through Friday.