Winter preparations interrupt Halloween after snowy night

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A lot of Minnesotans went to bed with snow falling and woke up to see it sticking to the ground this Halloween morning.

At the Pumpkin House in Minneapolis' Kingfield neighborhood, Halloween will carry on as scheduled, but the trick-or-treaters are pretty bundled up.

It’s about 30 degrees colder than it was for Halloween last year and Mother Nature is clearly leaning on the trick side of the ledger.

Almost as soon as they’re screwed together, shovels are getting scooped up at Diamond Lake Hardware.

Winter weather arrived suddenly overnight, even if the shop manager is working in shorts and a t-shirt.

"I don't give up easily," said Rick Kjornes.

They’ve already sold several shovels and snowblowers, and the ice melt left over from last year is nearly gone.

But a night of snow in late October wasn’t always part of their planning.

"Honestly, when I heard a couple inches were going to maybe fall and said, 'oh, yeah, whatever', but came out this morning and what a surprise," Kjornes said.

Snow stuck to the ground Tuesday and slick, icy roads contributed to some accidents.

Some of the snow and ice refused to melt well into the afternoon, which is good news for at least one kind of business.

"As you can see, we have a nice solid white coating right now," said Andrew Berns, operations supervisor at Hyland Hills Ski Area.

Ski slopes look almost ready to ride.

Hyland Hills already had a layer of manmade snow in Bloomington.

There’s still not enough to rev up the ski lifts, and a lot of hoses and rocks are peeking out of the snow for now, but the early storm could be really good for business.

"We're just hoping for a nice a nice early start," Berns said. "You know, this will get people thinking about skiing and snowboarding."

As for Halloween, costumes may be harder to see under a layer or two of coats, but the kids seem to be enjoying it anyway.