Residents in the metro area and much of southern Minnesota put their snowblowers and shovels to work Wednesday as they dug out from the season’s largest storm that dropped up to a foot of snow in places and took down power lines,

Southern Minnesota has been struck with a blizzard warning from the National Weather Service ahead of a powerful spring storm that could dump more than a half-foot of snow and whip it around with winds up to 60 mph.

The NWS says south-central and southeastern Minnesota – including Dakota County in the Twin Cities metro – are under a blizzard watch, with heavy snow set to combine with strong winds gusts of between 40-50 mph.