Sundgaard: Winter storm could put a wrench in your travel plans

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY: Guess what? The winter storm is once again our top story. No matter where you are in Minnesota, there is some kind of weather warning in effect, be it blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings, or wind-chill advisories. The State Patrol reports, as of last night, there were 216 crashes, 15 with injuries, 171 vehicles spun off the road. There have been four jackknifed semis. That does not include this morning's mess.

The timing of this storm obviously is not great, and it's already throwing a wrench into holiday travel plans. Our meteorologist, Sven Sundgaard is on the line with more details. Hey, Sven.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Hey, Cathy. We're in phase two now where the winds are really starting to pick up across the state. But some impressive snow totals came out of this. Two bullseyes, one right over the Twin Cities but also one along the North Shore, the usual culprit-- 12 feet in Tofte, 11.7 in Lutsen, just 3, though, in Duluth, about 5 inches in Tamarack, Green Isle, Minnesota, 8 and 1/2 inches. 8 in Lakeville, but 7.4 at the airport and 6 and 1/2 in Woodbury. So most metro amounts about 5 to 7, but we saw some 8-inch amounts which, again, was second place only to some of the North Shore amounts.

CATHY: Now, the wind is going to become the issue here this afternoon, as I mentioned. The sun's out in the Twin Cities. It looks nice but cold, but don't be fooled by that.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, it is deceptive. And the big difference, of course, if you've been removing the snow this week compared to last, you know the difference in the snow. So in this snowfall, we had 0.42 of an inch of water out of that 7.4 inches of snow. That's an 18-to-1 ratio. Last week, it was an 8-to-1 ratio. So this snow is less than half the weight. That's why it's going to blow around so much.

So when those winds pick up, it's going to reduce visibility pretty quickly. And we've got those dangerous wind chills, too. Feels like it's 46 below right now around Pipestone and Laverne, near 30 below in the Twin Cities. In these wind chills, your exposed skin can freeze in literally just about five minutes. So it is that dangerous kind of cold.

That's why we've got the wind chill advisories and warnings that are in effect through early Saturday. The blizzard warnings just took effect in western Minnesota. 6:00 PM further east as we head towards Mankato, Albert Lea, Rochester, the North Shore as well, blizzard warnings go into effect this evening because those are going to be some of the highest wind gusts. And just added more recently now, much of western Wisconsin-- so Eau Claire, Menominee also in blizzard warnings that go into effect starting at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning-- same issue, is going to be the winds.

CATHY: And it's going to be really tough to see, right? I mean, this is called a ground blizzard.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah, because the snow is just so light and easy to pick up. The winds are going to stay sustained-- today already 25 miles an hour in southwestern Minnesota. But tomorrow, even in the Twin Cities, winds are going to be sustained at about 25 to 30 miles an hour. Gusts across southern Minnesota over 40 miles an hour, could see some over 50 mile per hour wind gusts.

Cathy, three of the computer models we use in deciphering weather-- not just one, but three-- produced wind gusts over 70 miles an hour along the North Shore tomorrow. So that is just some insane kind of wind, whipping around this very light, fluffy snow. And, of course, we've got the cold temperatures. Wind chills are going to stay in that 30 to 45 below-zero range. Highs today staying subzero statewide, down to the teens below zero overnight tonight. And we're probably going to stay below 0 for most of us until probably Sunday afternoon.

CATHY: Wow. So where is this cold coming from?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. This is good, old-fashioned, authentic Arctic air. Meteorologists tend to overuse the term-- oh, we got Arctic air coming in. It's not usually always from the Arctic. It's more polar air. I know it seems like a minor difference, but it truly is.

But using NOAA's high-split trajectory models, we can actually trace the air mass back 5 to 7 days. It comes from Northern Siberia, a couple of islands called-- and I know some Russian speakers are going to be shaking their head at me-- [RUSSIAN]-- but I'm Norwegian. Bear with me-- via the North Pole, crossed into Alaska, and hugged the Canadian Rockies right down into the Dakotas and Minnesota. So this is air that was literally in northern Siberia less than a week ago.

CATHY: OK, wow. Oh my goodness. And then--

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Lucky us.

CATHY: --you were talking-- yeah, I know, right? Welcome. Welcome, Siberian air. So I'm hoping somewhere along the line, the Siberian air is going to get kicked east. And then what's behind this?

SVEN SUNDGAARD: Yeah. We've got a substantial warm up. So if you can just hang on, if the Siberian air isn't quite your thing-- I think much of southern Minnesota cracks 10 degrees Sunday afternoon, definitely above 0 for most of us. And then we've got temperatures in the teens, for the most part, Monday. Tuesday should see 20s in southern Minnesota.

But right now, we're forecasting high temperatures above freezing Wednesday. And as far as we can see, the models keep us in the 30s, maybe even 40s for the first days of New Year's. So it seems like it's the opposite of many years-- that first week of January seems really cold. Looks like we're getting it out of the way now so that the new year is a little milder to start.

CATHY: Wow, talk about a yo-yo. OK.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: I know.

CATHY: Well, Sven, thank you for the update. We appreciate it. Have a good day.

SVEN SUNDGAARD: You too. Stay safe out there, everyone.

CATHY: Absolutely. That's our meteorologist, Sven Sundgaard.