A late-season storm that brought bands of heavy, wet snow to the Midwest and Plains states moved slowly eastward on Thursday.

Parts of southeastern and eastern Minnesota into western Wisconsin were expected to get more snow, the National Weather Service predicted. While about five inches of snow fell in Denver, Colo., other parts of the state got more than a foot. Parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming also saw upwards of fifteen inches of unseasonable snow, the weather service reported.

Weather.com reported that the storm had "dumped up to 13 inches of snow in Owatonna, Minn.,where I-35 was closed early Thursday due to snow and downed power lines. Up to 14 inches of snow has been measured in Ellsworth, Wis."

Snowfall was expected to continue through the upper Midwestern states through Thursday night before dissipating on Friday, the weather service reported.

And up to nine inches had already fallen in Dodge County, Minn., on Thursday.

The snow looked ready to melt away fast after hitting the ground even in the areas that saw the most accumulation on Wednesday.

The unwelcome powder still managed to cause disturbances in towns and cities that had thought it was safe to put away their shovels and ice salt.

“This is  a record for me,” Brian Wagstrom, director of public works in Minnetonka, Minn., told NBC station KARE. “This is the latest that we have ever put plows on this time of the year.”

Eric Johnson / Austin Daily Herald via AP

Mike Gregg trudges through the snow Thursday morning in Austin, Minn., to walk his dog Jake. Heavy, wet snow impacted driving and all-around travel abruptly interrupting spring.

“We are anticipating maybe 2 to 3 inches of slush on the roadways,” Wagstrom added. “Depending upon the heat of the roadway, it might melt off.”

Residents of Des Moines, Iowa, and even Kansas City, Mo., could get a last-minute visit from winter with some accumulation before the storm’s over, according to weather.com.

Jim Eulberg, director of public works in the South Dakota town of Worthington, had to tell his crews to give up spring street sweeping and ready the plows.

“When you’re looking at the calendar, you’re thinking this is the stuff we should be doing. Not dealing with ice storm damage and plowing,” Eulberg told NBC station KDLT.

Melt and move on, other residents of South Dakota said as 3 to 4 inches fell over Sioux Falls on Wednesday.

“It’s May 1. We are supposed to be out delivering May baskets,” Debbie Tams of Sioux Falls told KDLT as the city saw its first May snow in nearly four decades. “Not shoveling snow.”

Related:

Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 7:52 AM EDT

Elisha Page / AP

An excavator is used to break up a sheet of ice on the Big Sioux River, below the falls at Falls Park Friday, March 15, 2013.

Emergency crews searched Friday for the bodies of a man and woman who jumped into the icy waters of the Big Sioux River in South Dakota to save a six-year-old child before the two were swept off by the raging current themselves.

The boy is safe, but Sioux Falls authorities said on Friday morning that the effort to find the two adults is now considered a recovery and no longer a rescue mission.

The two jumped into the river near Sioux Falls around 6 p.m. local time on Thursday after the young boy fell in, according to local NBC affiliate KDLT.

Police identified the young boy as Garrett Wallace of Vermillion, S.D. at a Friday afternoon press conference, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. The woman was identified as the boy’s 16-year-old sister Madison Wallace, and the man as Lyle Eagletail of Sioux Falls, the local paper reported.

“By the time I got there he was already in there and they had him by the arm,” Napoleon Ducheneaux, a friend of the man who dove in, told KDLT.

“They had the kid in his arm and he slipped and fell. And then not too long after that, the kid popped up a little bit to the right and climbed up the rocks by himself," he added.

The two rescuers found themselves in trouble.

“I heard him and the woman talking. He said something like, ‘You hold on to me, I’ll hold on to you.’ And I kept telling them to come to my voice,” Ducheneaux told KDLT.

The two then slipped under the water, Ducheneaux said.

Sioux Falls Fire Rescue Chief Jim Sideras said a crane might be brought in to help rescue workers in the icy river.

"We have some issues with very thick ice that we are trying to address. We also have a high flow of water because of ice melting," he said.

"We have a lot of foam. We have on the scene crews who are trained in swift water rescue and ice rescue. We also have on site a dive team. Because of the thickness of the ice, it's not possible for that team to go in. We are still doing search patterns," he added.

Sideras told KDLT that the boy was safe with family members. “I was with him and he’s with family members, and he’s doing fine,” Sideras said.

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 6:42 AM EDT

Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was released from a South Dakota hospital Wednesday, five days after he fell and hit his head before a TV appearance.

"Senator McGovern's condition continues to improve and we are pleased with his progress," Michael Elliott, chief medical officer of Avera McKennan Medical Center in Sioux Falls, said in a statement. "But it's very important that he continue to rest quietly until he has completely healed."

McGovern, 89, was taken by helicopter to a Sioux Falls hospital late Friday after falling outside Dakota Wesleyan University's McGovern Library in Mitchell. McGovern hit his head on the pavement about two hours before he was scheduled to appear on a live C-SPAN interview at the library.

McGovern, who served three terms in the U.S. Senate, lost the 1972 presidential election to President Richard Nixon.

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