The upper Midwest has been pounded my a major winter storm in the past 36 hours that has brought bone chilling cold and heavy snow to the region.  One casualty of the snow was the roof of the home of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings as the roof collapsed early this morning under the weight of 17 inches of snow. 

Some areas in the region have seen more than 20 inches of snow and blizzard conditions have persisted as strong winds make things treacherous for travel.  Winter weather warnings and advisories of one sort or another stretch across more than a dozen states from Wisconsin and Michigan down to Alabama and Georgia.

The Minnesota Vikings were originally scheduled to take on the New York Giants today in Minneapolis.  The game was first pushed back to Monday after Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport was closed yesterday stranding the Giants in Kansas City. 

This morning the inflated roof of the Metrodome collapsed for the third time in its history.  The fabric of the dome shredded and snow came pouring onto the field.  Amazing new video released by FOX Sports (see below) shows the sights and sound of the collapse as it happened. 

As for the game between the Giants and Vikings, it will be played tomorrow night at 5:20pm MST at Ford Field in Detroit.

The Denver Broncos don’t have this problem – of course we don’t have a roof on our stadium and for that matter we don’t have any snow either.