Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

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Welcome to Minnesota's winter version of a summer drought. Lazy high pressure sprawls overhead. Blue skies and weather people babbling about wind chill and the lack of smudges on Doppler. Now, back to your regular programming.

Our current brand of cold gets your attention, but it's not anything to slow most Minnesotans down. In Houston? It would be a civil emergency.

Your TV blares national weather scenes from California, Atlanta and the Deep South through this weekend. About 7 feet of snow has already fallen in the high Sierra. California's next "atmospheric river" is warmer, and will raise rainfall levels into high elevations where deep snow fell earlier this week. That's a recipe for a potential flood disaster as rain-washed snow melt crashes down mountainsides into the valleys. The Land of All or Nothing.

Meanwhile Atlanta prepares for potential gridlock as 2" to 4" of snow and ice arrives Friday. That qualifies as just another random winter commute in the Twin Cities.

https://twitter.com/NWSTwinCities/status/817127179456827396

Thermometers across Minnesota continue to pulse either side of zero into Sunday morning. Teens (above zero) will feel noticeably milder by Sunday afternoon.

Arctic high pressure cells continue to sprawl over the central USA shoving the storm track into the Deep South. Atlanta and the Carolina's get a dose of wintry weather as we move toward the weekend. The next atmospheric river drives another wave of heavy rain into California.

The snowfall totals are prolific in the higher elevations of the Sierras, where close to 7 

https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/817042035807059968

How do you end a drought? Mark Twain is credited with saying it takes a flood. How about a series of massive atmospheric river-driven storms slamming into California's higher terrain? Storm #1 already delivered up to a foot of rain this week. Here come the next several waves in quick succession.

Rainfall totals could reach 10" to 15" along the Sierra slopes.

https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/817078990125101056

All that rain, on top of heavy snow may generate the worst flood in parts of California in almost 12 years.

https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/817100267439214602

At the highest elevations snowfall totals could reach 10 to 15 feet.

https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/816741372455690240

This will be a wild weather weekend in northern California. Here's the storm timeline from the Sacramento NWS.

https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento/status/817051751165624322

Meanwhile, winter storm warnings are up for Atlanta and parts of the Deep South.

https://twitter.com/NWSAtlanta/status/817091365221888000

Suddenly I'm feeling better about sub-zero temps in Minnesota this week.

One thing about Minnesota weather; it's rarely boring. Here's a preview of some insight from Mark Seeley in this week's Weather Talk.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

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