Mostly cloudy weekend; April snow facts
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If gray is your favorite color, you'll love this weekend.
Mostly cloudy skies are expected over Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Saturday and Sunday.
At least there aren't any mosquitoes!
Rain chances
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As we go through the weekend, a low pressure system will move slowly from southern Missouri to northern Illinois.
The result will be a chance of showers Saturday afternoon in southeastern Minnesota, with the shower chance expanding to cover much of southern and central Minnesota Saturday night and Sunday. Northeastern Minnesota could see some light rain and light freezing rain at times from Saturday night into Sunday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening:
The color chart on the right refers to the precipitation rate in millimeters per hour, not the precipitation total.
Stuck in the 40s
Most of Minnesota will see highs in the 40s Saturday, with some upper 30s over northeastern Minnesota.
Similar highs are on tap for Sunday:
The Twin Cities metro area should see highs in the 50s this coming week.
April snow?
Someone asked me yesterday if the snow season is over.
There isn't any snow in the Twin Cities 7 day forecast, and we're into April next weekend.
April snow can happen.
According to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, the Twin Cities metro area receives an average of 2.5 inches of snow during the month of April:
That average is based on a 30 year period (currently 1981-2010) that is shifted every 10 years.
As you might imagine, our Twin Cities April snow totals show quite a range:
Since 2000, the Twin Cities metro area has seen as little as zero snow in April (2010), to as much as 20.2 inches (2002).
By the way, this week's snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office shows that there is still some snow on the ground in parts of northern Minnesota:
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.
