There were forecasts that some areas would see hurricane-force winds. If so that's a bit much even by Minnesota standards and worthy of the "snow hurricane" label due to the damage and mayhem such winds can cause if preparations aren't made.

And if such high winds cover a large enough area it's like the problem hurricanes cause: damages, outages and emergency needs over an area of tens of thousands of square miles, with *no* unaffected resources nearby to draw on.