Monday may have felt like deja vu for many students when Iowa was blanketed with heavy snow for the second straight year by a March 7 winter storm.

Ames residents tried to begin cleanup efforts Monday, as snow continued to fall off and on throughout the day and into the night.

The National Weather Service predicted an accumulation of up to 12 inches of snow by this morning.

The heaviest snow was falling Monday in a band from west-central through southeastern Iowa. More than 13 inches of snow had fallen along that route.

Due to poor visibility caused by blowing snow, the Iowa State Patrol sent out road advisories Monday strongly discouraging travel on highways. At some spots in Iowa, visibility was one-eighth of a mile.

At 3 p.m. Monday, weather experts at KCCI-TV in Des Moines predicted that Ames would receive one to three more inches of snow overnight along with sweeping 30 mile-per-hour winds and temperatures hovering near the mid-20s.

For today, KCCI forecasted cloudy skies and occasional flurries with a high peaking at 30 degrees.

Iowa State students got Monday afternoon off when officials canceled classes due to the inclement weather.

The decision to axe classes was made jointly by Loras Jaeger, director of the Department of Public Safety, ISU President Martin Jischke and Interim Provost Richard Seagrave.

DPS officials assessed weather conditions at 3 a.m. Monday morning. After calling weather services and street maintenance crews, DPS and administration officials decided against cancellation.

As the day progressed and street conditions worsened, they opted to call off classes at about noon.

Warren Madden, vice president for Business and Finance, named a few factors university officials consider when deciding if the weather warrants canceling classes.

“ISU isn’t a grade school — we don’t have makeup days. Most students live in the city of Ames anyway and have the ability to walk to campus, and the sidewalks are kept in passable conditions,” Madden said. “We also look at the number and importance of events taking place that day that would be canceled as well.”

ISU administrators also contacted CyRide to assist in assessing road conditions.

“CyRide tries to keep in touch with ISU administration when deciding whether or not to shut down,” said Karen Jamison, CyRide operations supervisor. “CyRide also gives road condition updates back so that we can help get students home if classes are canceled.”

Jamison said keeping CyRide in working order during snowstorms is made easy because CyRide’s bus routes are on the City of Ames emergency snow route, which are the first streets to get plowed.

However, some important services closed early Monday due to the weather, including Parks Library and the Student Health Center which closed Monday at 5 p.m.

The Celebration of International Women’s Day set to take place Monday also was canceled and has been rescheduled for Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

Iowa’s snow was part of a low pressure system that had developed over Colorado and moved east. The system was expected to move quickly and be over Illinois or Indiana by early today. However, a weaker storm system was expected to move into Iowa on Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.