Blustery winds and more than a foot of snow created near whiteout conditions across southern Wisconsin Wednesday, as a slow-moving storm shut down schools and nearly paralyzed the region.

Snowfall reports by late afternoon ranged up to 19.5 inches at Orfordville in Rock County in the south central area, 16 inches at Argyle in Lafayette County in the southwest, 15 inches at Cambridge near Madison and 14.2 inches at the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis.

Isolated areas from Monroe and Janesville to Port Washington and Milwaukee could get 18 to 20 inches before the snow ends Wednesday night, said meteorologist Rusty Kapela of the National Weather Service's Sullivan office.

Visibility was so poor in Green County that snow plow operators were called off the roads shortly before noon, county highway commissioner Dallas Cecil of Monroe said.

"The winds are blowing so hard the guys can't see the front of their trucks," he said.

A few plow operators were making emergency runs Wednesday afternoon for vehicles that slipped into ditches because "drivers wouldn't listen when they were told to stay off the road," he said.

Accumulations reached a foot by midday at Stoughton in Dane County, and a few people were cross country skiing on sidewalks outside the state Capitol building in Madison on Wednesday afternoon.

General Mitchell International Airport at Milwaukee pulled snow plow operators off its runways early Wednesday afternoon due to the falling and drifting snow, airport spokeswoman Pat Rowe said. All flights were stopped.

A 51-year-old man was killed Wednesday morning in Milwaukee County when he lost control of his car on a slick portion of Interstate 94 and slid in front of a semitrailer, Sheriff's Sgt. Aisha Barkow said.

A 59-year-old Oak Creek man died in Milwaukee in the afternoon when his pickup truck crossed the road, jumped a sidewalk and crashed into a pole, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in a news release.

The Milwaukee County Transit System suspended bus service at 5:30 p.m. after 23 buses carrying passengers became stuck in snow. Service was not scheduled to resume until Thursday morning.

"Out of concern for public safety we do not want to encourage people to travel in this weather," the transit system said in its announcement.

Authorities throughout the state also discouraged people from traveling.

State Patrol Lt. Nick Scorcio said there were whiteout conditions and strong winds throughout the northeast region.

A semitrailer jackknifed about 2:30 p.m. on Interstate 43 in Sheboygan County, just a mile north of Oostburg. The crash caused at least 30 vehicles to stop, including a trooper, Scorcio said. Some became stuck in snow or ditches. There were no injuries.

Traffic was moving at about 15 mph on Interstate 43, said Scorcio, who recommended people stay home.

"There's waist-high snow drifts in some spots, and it's just very poor visibility," he said.

More than 4,500 WE Energies customers lost power in scattered outages during the day, spokesman Brian Manthey said. About 2,100 customers were without power in the Bay View neighborhood on Milwaukee's south side late Wednesday afternoon.

Hundreds of schools and businesses across southern Wisconsin closed Wednesday as the snow continued to pile up. They included the Milwaukee Public Schools, several Milwaukee area shopping malls and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The snow caused Walworth County court officials to cancel proceedings Wednesday in Mark Jensen's lengthy trial in Elkhorn. Jensen is accused of poisoning and suffocating his wife in 1998.

Occasional brief periods of blizzard-like conditions developed along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Milwaukee to Kenosha as the snowfall picked up Wednesday, Kapela said.

"You can barely see across the street" because of the falling and blowing snow, said Jodi Vash, as she looked outside Wednesday afternoon from a George Webb

Restaurant in Racine where she works as a server and cook.

Milwaukee was among many cities that put snow emergencies in effect Tuesday night and Wednesday, requiring motorists to follow special parking rules so plows could clear the streets.

Tony Hayward, 40, slipped on the snow while trying to cross a busy Milwaukee street Wednesday.

"It's crazy," said Hayward, who grew up in the Milwaukee area but now lives in Spain. "It reminds me of being a kid, it's like when you have a snow day. It's kind of fun."

But Hayward nevertheless said he hoped he could make his return flight on Thursday and escape the Midwestern winter.