Blizzard warnings issued for the North Shore, as the state braces for a wet and snowy weekend

Minnesota is already feeling the initial impacts of a storm that will bring areas of heavy rain, snow, high winds, and even ice, through the weekend. A quieter stretch of weather ahead after the storm clears out.

Friday:

Minnesota is already getting initial impacts of the storm, but precipitation will remain fairly light through Friday as the brunt of the storm is still well to the state’s west.

Temperatures Friday will be in the low 30s.

Those temperatures hovering right around freezing will mean some light freezing rain or drizzle could mix in with the light snow we seeing. It will not be a major ice event where we need to worry about trees or power lines but it could create slick spots on the road.

Otherwise, most of the precipitation Friday is expected to remain light snow, with some light rain mixing in for southern Minnesota later in the day as temperatures make it above freezing.

Storm Impacts late Friday through Sunday:

With the freezing line across the state for this storm, we will see combinations of rain, snow and isolated freezing rain. Northern Minnesota will stay mostly snow, while the southern part of the state is more likely to switch back and forth between rain and snow. There is plentiful moisture with this storm, so precipitation will be significant.

The heavier impacts of the storm start this evening in southwestern Minnesota and will spread across the state tonight. This means there will be widespread snow and increasing winds.

For northern Minnesota, where precipitation will stay mostly snow, heavy snow and high winds will make travel treacherous. Some locations could see over a foot of snow combined with wind gusts over 40 mph on Saturday causing white-out conditions. Because of this we have winter storm warnings issued for most of northern Minnesota going from Friday night through noon Sunday and blizzard warnings for parts of the North Shore from Saturday morning through noon Sunday.

As mentioned, this storm will bring high winds, with winds picking up overnight tonight and wind gusts over 30 mph on Saturday and over 40 mph near Lake Superior. Winds will slowly diminish on Sunday.

For the southern half of this system, temperatures will be warm enough at times that the precipitation will switch to rain, especially on Saturday.

Here are the forecast highs for Saturday, showing why part of the Minnesota remains snow and part gets rain. Therefore, snow totals are a little more uncertain for central Minnesota, as any slight temperature change could vary how much rain versus snow falls.

Here is a look at how widespread this storm will be, and how the rain-snow line could set up across Minnesota by Saturday afternoon. Also notice that the very northern edge of Minnesota is on the fringe of the storm and could escape some of the worst impacts and heavy snow.

Overnight Saturday into Sunday, temperatures fall, so most of Minnesota returns to seeing all snow until the storm finally moves out Sunday afternoon.

For the Twin Cities area, all of this currently means a possible 1-3 inches of snow tonight, but not sticking due to the rain Saturday. Then another 2-4 inches Saturday night into Sunday that is likely to stick. But remember, this could skew higher if we stay a little colder and more of this is snow versus rain.

Next Week

After Sunday, it looks like all of next week remains very quiet. Monday will be slightly cooler, with most of Minnesota in the 20s, but with plentiful sunshine. And, except for a couple light snow areas that could clip northern Minnesota, we stay predominantly dry. So, the shovels will get a little break!

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.