Travelers hoping to fly out of – or into – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Sunday played a game of chance against Mother Nature, as snow began falling during the morning hours.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m., the number of canceled arrivals stood at 47, while canceled departures was at 66.

As of 10 p.m., that number had grown to 50 canceled arriving flights, and 79 canceled departures. Meanwhile, there were 107 delayed incoming flights at that time, while 92 outgoing delays.

The cancellations and delays come as a storm system expected to bring up to 10″ of snow in the area moves in. This has caused some municipalities to announce a snow emergency. A full list of snow events can be found by CLICKING HERE.

“I’m a little disappointed but honestly, but I kind of expected this to happen,” Shane Koeppe, traveler, said.

It’s a game of chance, but Mother Nature holds all the cards.

“Our flight to D.C. got canceled and so what’s happening currently is that my mom’s in line trying to get us a flight for tomorrow morning,” Koeppe said. “As long as we can get a flight out tomorrow morning that means we’ll be there at a reasonable time.”

Travelers packed their patience and optimism when they headed to MSP on Sunday.

“Well so far, the plane is on time it says on the board. It’s not until 8:00,” said traveler Sherdith Greenhagen. “Eventually, we’re hoping to get to Bangkok.”

The number of flight cancellations and delays started rolling in as Mother Nature dumped inches of snow across the state.

Passengers heading on vacation or to catch up with family are keeping their fingers crossed they’ll make it out.

Others are happy they made it home even if it’s a warm welcome back with a blizzard at the start of spring.

“Almost toward the end of March and we’re getting a blizzard? It kind of like follows Minnesota’s reputation,” Koeppe said. “Snow, just always snow.”

MSP released a statement which says in part:

During winter storms, the MAC airfield maintenance team dedicates two winter operations runway/taxi teams to the airfield around the clock. The goal is to maintain flight operations on a minimum of two runways. Depending on the weather conditions, we can scale resources to use up to 180 pieces of specialized vehicles and equipment during a winter storm. The mix of equipment in use changes based on the forecast and on changing conditions. Staffing is of course another big part of the response. We have approximately 320 personnel between MAC and contractor teams to support snow removal and storm response efforts during the winter season. In the case of this weekend’s storm, our full resources are being activated and will be on site until well after the storm has passed.

According to the latest forecast from Minnesota’s Weather Authority, steady to heavy snowfall will be moving across the southern half of Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, with heavy snow continuing to fall throughout the evening and during the beginning of the overnight hours.

The weather isn’t only causing cancellations at the airport – some schools and programs have already decided to move classes online or completely cancel them for Monday. You can find a continuously updated list of school closures HERE.

CLICK HERE to check the status of your flight and HERE for the latest forecast.