Here's how much snow has fallen this week so far — and how much more is coming
Two people walk through Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News
On the second day of this week’s winter storm, we’re seeing snow, ice and even rain.
MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about how much snowfall we’ve seen so far, how much more snow is coming, and what other wild weather conditions we can expect across the state for the rest of the week.
Huttner gave us the latest on the unusually high volume of snow Minnesota has seen so far, and if there are any signs of warmer air ahead after a brutally cold December.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.
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Audio transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: So we're going to get a roundup of all that's happened so far and what's in store next. MPR Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner is just the guy for the job. Hey, Paul. How are you doing?
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, I'm good, Cathy. It looks like the snow is messing with my connection, though. I dropped off for a second there, but it looks like I'm back and clean. So let's talk about snow, huh?
CATHY WURZER: Shall we? Shall we? OK, who is still getting the snow?
PAUL HUTTNER: OK, so right now, it's snowing from about Walker over to Duluth, and then pretty much south through most of central, eastern Minnesota. There are a few breaks north of the Twin Cities and eastern parts of the Twin Cities. So we're going to see that snowfall intensity, I think, vary throughout the rest of the day. It'll be light to nothing at some times, and then there are some pockets of still heavier snow back toward Hutchinson, Redwood Falls.
And it's interesting, because I'm watching this low swirl, the center of the actual storm, I-35, south of the Twin Cities down around Faribault. This thing is stalled. It's an upper level cut off low. It's slow moving. That's why it's just kept snowing and snowing in a couple of different waves, really a two-part snow bonanza here for this system with yesterday and today.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Let's talk about snowfall totals. I'm a little surprised to see that we've had as much snow as we've had in the Twin Cities. Like what, 11 inches at this point, or more?
Even more. Even more. I'm getting new totals in now just in the last half hour or so. We've got a lot of 11, 12, 13-inch totals. Chanhassen has 12, Bloomington 13.1. That's as of 11:00 AM. Hopkins, 11.2. Woodbury, 13.5. That just came in in the last couple of minutes, Cathy.
Blaine has 10 and 1/2. Oakdale, 11 and 1/2. Eagan, 13.2. Farmington, 13. Edgerton, southwest Minnesota, Pipestone County, 14 inches of snow. You get up north, it's about 9 at Moose Lake, 4 or 5 in Duluth. So this is a really widespread system, and even Stillwater, Lakeville, Fridley, around 11 inches.
Now, it looked like that core of the heaviest snow accumulation would be in Southwest Minnesota, which it has been. But last night, as this upper low spinned back toward us with that second wave of snow, it set up right over the Twin Cities. So that extended east. I thought the top end would be around 10 inches in the Twin Cities. We're going to be more like 11, 12, 13 for many locations.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. Wow. So this adds to what has really been a pretty busy snowfall season.
PAUL HUTTNER: It's incredible. We've got about 44 inches now at Twin Cities Airport for the season. That doesn't count maybe a couple of inches that are still to be reported. The average for the year, Cathy, is 52 inches. So we've almost hit our annual average snowfall now as of what, January 4th, in the Twin Cities. Duluth has had well over 60 inches. They're running 25 inches above average. We're running more than a foot above average in the Twin Cities.
And a real interesting storm this was too. There's one thing I want to point out when we talk about snowfall accumulations. There are two main factors that go into that, right, obviously the intensity of the snow, and the duration of the snow. Yesterday was all about intensity. We had that 4 to 5 hours of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
Last night, today, all about duration. We've had 6 to 12 hours of visibilities around 3/4 of a mile to a mile. That's about a 1/2 an inch to 3/4 inch per hour. So today's snow is just adding up more over time, Cathy, whereas yesterday, we just got blasted in just a few hours.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK, so behind the system, usually there's bitter cold. Well, not usually, but it's January. But doesn't seem like that's going to happen?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the air mass upstream behind the system is not super cold. It is going to get colder. So we're 33 now in the Twin Cities. It's 7 up in Hallock in northwest Minnesota, So that's the difference in air masses. So tomorrow, 29 in the Twin Cities, teens up north, northwest Minnesota the next few days. 19 Friday, 20 Saturday, 24 Sunday. Those are Twin Cities numbers. We'll see the sun come out again Friday through Sunday.
But here's the good news, I think, for many Minnesotans. There is little or no snowfall on the forecast models for about the next week for Minnesota. So we're finally going to get a break here after this winds down. Late tonight, even a few flurries tomorrow morning. We'll get a bit of a break, Cathy, and a breather. We can come up for air.
CATHY WURZER: Good. I do want to ask you about this epic storm coming off way out west that's taking aim at California, according to the latest maps I saw yesterday. That thing looks like it's a monster. Will we just get grazed by that?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, that, oddly enough, probably most of it will go south of us for this next storm. This storm we had was one of those atmospheric rivers that hit California a few days ago. This is a remarkable setup, because these atmospheric rivers, which are like rivers, channels of moisture that go for hundreds or 1,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, sometimes these set up right into California, right into the West Coast.
And this is a persistent pattern, so it's not just this storm that as you heard on the news will dump 10 inches of rain in the mountains with heavy snows. There are three or four more of these lined up. Now, this is not great news for flooding, but it's great news for California's reservoirs, for snowpack in the mountains in the West, which has been in this long-term megadrought.
They really need this moisture. Of course, when it rains, it pours in California. But a remarkable meteorological phenomenon to watch these atmospheric rivers that just channel this Pacific moisture right in the West Coast, and then wring it out as rain and mountain snow.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. Wow, all right, Paul Huttner. Thank you for everything you've done for the past-- well, this has been a really well forecasted storm, so I know you all put a lot of work into it.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, thanks. And our third one in four weeks.
CATHY WURZER: I was trying to count on my fingers how many storms. Thank you, Paul. I'll talk to you later.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Bye-bye. Paul Huttner is MPR's chief meteorologist.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, I'm good, Cathy. It looks like the snow is messing with my connection, though. I dropped off for a second there, but it looks like I'm back and clean. So let's talk about snow, huh?
CATHY WURZER: Shall we? Shall we? OK, who is still getting the snow?
PAUL HUTTNER: OK, so right now, it's snowing from about Walker over to Duluth, and then pretty much south through most of central, eastern Minnesota. There are a few breaks north of the Twin Cities and eastern parts of the Twin Cities. So we're going to see that snowfall intensity, I think, vary throughout the rest of the day. It'll be light to nothing at some times, and then there are some pockets of still heavier snow back toward Hutchinson, Redwood Falls.
And it's interesting, because I'm watching this low swirl, the center of the actual storm, I-35, south of the Twin Cities down around Faribault. This thing is stalled. It's an upper level cut off low. It's slow moving. That's why it's just kept snowing and snowing in a couple of different waves, really a two-part snow bonanza here for this system with yesterday and today.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah. Let's talk about snowfall totals. I'm a little surprised to see that we've had as much snow as we've had in the Twin Cities. Like what, 11 inches at this point, or more?
Even more. Even more. I'm getting new totals in now just in the last half hour or so. We've got a lot of 11, 12, 13-inch totals. Chanhassen has 12, Bloomington 13.1. That's as of 11:00 AM. Hopkins, 11.2. Woodbury, 13.5. That just came in in the last couple of minutes, Cathy.
Blaine has 10 and 1/2. Oakdale, 11 and 1/2. Eagan, 13.2. Farmington, 13. Edgerton, southwest Minnesota, Pipestone County, 14 inches of snow. You get up north, it's about 9 at Moose Lake, 4 or 5 in Duluth. So this is a really widespread system, and even Stillwater, Lakeville, Fridley, around 11 inches.
Now, it looked like that core of the heaviest snow accumulation would be in Southwest Minnesota, which it has been. But last night, as this upper low spinned back toward us with that second wave of snow, it set up right over the Twin Cities. So that extended east. I thought the top end would be around 10 inches in the Twin Cities. We're going to be more like 11, 12, 13 for many locations.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. Wow. So this adds to what has really been a pretty busy snowfall season.
PAUL HUTTNER: It's incredible. We've got about 44 inches now at Twin Cities Airport for the season. That doesn't count maybe a couple of inches that are still to be reported. The average for the year, Cathy, is 52 inches. So we've almost hit our annual average snowfall now as of what, January 4th, in the Twin Cities. Duluth has had well over 60 inches. They're running 25 inches above average. We're running more than a foot above average in the Twin Cities.
And a real interesting storm this was too. There's one thing I want to point out when we talk about snowfall accumulations. There are two main factors that go into that, right, obviously the intensity of the snow, and the duration of the snow. Yesterday was all about intensity. We had that 4 to 5 hours of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
Last night, today, all about duration. We've had 6 to 12 hours of visibilities around 3/4 of a mile to a mile. That's about a 1/2 an inch to 3/4 inch per hour. So today's snow is just adding up more over time, Cathy, whereas yesterday, we just got blasted in just a few hours.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. OK, so behind the system, usually there's bitter cold. Well, not usually, but it's January. But doesn't seem like that's going to happen?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, the air mass upstream behind the system is not super cold. It is going to get colder. So we're 33 now in the Twin Cities. It's 7 up in Hallock in northwest Minnesota, So that's the difference in air masses. So tomorrow, 29 in the Twin Cities, teens up north, northwest Minnesota the next few days. 19 Friday, 20 Saturday, 24 Sunday. Those are Twin Cities numbers. We'll see the sun come out again Friday through Sunday.
But here's the good news, I think, for many Minnesotans. There is little or no snowfall on the forecast models for about the next week for Minnesota. So we're finally going to get a break here after this winds down. Late tonight, even a few flurries tomorrow morning. We'll get a bit of a break, Cathy, and a breather. We can come up for air.
CATHY WURZER: Good. I do want to ask you about this epic storm coming off way out west that's taking aim at California, according to the latest maps I saw yesterday. That thing looks like it's a monster. Will we just get grazed by that?
PAUL HUTTNER: You know, that, oddly enough, probably most of it will go south of us for this next storm. This storm we had was one of those atmospheric rivers that hit California a few days ago. This is a remarkable setup, because these atmospheric rivers, which are like rivers, channels of moisture that go for hundreds or 1,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, sometimes these set up right into California, right into the West Coast.
And this is a persistent pattern, so it's not just this storm that as you heard on the news will dump 10 inches of rain in the mountains with heavy snows. There are three or four more of these lined up. Now, this is not great news for flooding, but it's great news for California's reservoirs, for snowpack in the mountains in the West, which has been in this long-term megadrought.
They really need this moisture. Of course, when it rains, it pours in California. But a remarkable meteorological phenomenon to watch these atmospheric rivers that just channel this Pacific moisture right in the West Coast, and then wring it out as rain and mountain snow.
CATHY WURZER: Hmm. Wow, all right, Paul Huttner. Thank you for everything you've done for the past-- well, this has been a really well forecasted storm, so I know you all put a lot of work into it.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, thanks. And our third one in four weeks.
CATHY WURZER: I was trying to count on my fingers how many storms. Thank you, Paul. I'll talk to you later.
PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: Bye-bye. Paul Huttner is MPR's chief meteorologist.
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