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

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We have your weekend forecast details, but we’ll first take a quick look at Friday afternoon and evening.

The National Weather Service has highlighted northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin for the possibility of a wintry mix of flurries and freezing drizzle Friday:

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR 

, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News 

Our Friday highs reach the 30s in the Twin Cities metro area and to our south and east, with 20s elsewhere in Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 25 degrees on Dec. 21 and 22. We’ll be seeing highs in the lower 40s this weekend!

We’ll share highs in the 40s with southern Minnesota, while northern Minnesota tops out in the 30s:

Highs in the 40s are forecast for about the southern half of Minnesota on Sunday, with 30s to the north:

West-central Wisconsin will also reach the 40s Sunday afternoon.

We looked at a regional map of snow cover in Thursday’s Updraft post. Now, we have a detailed Minnesota 

, courtesy of the Minnesota State Climatology Office and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:

Note the large area in northeastern Minnesota with 18 to 24 inches of snow on the ground, with some pockets of 24 to 30 inches of snow cover. Elsewhere in northern Minnesota and much of central Minnesota snow depths are generally in the 8- to 18-inch range of snow depth, with the Twin Cities in the 4- to 8-inch range.

Our snow cover will shrink a bit this weekend, so if you’re sledding, snowboarding or cross-country skiing this weekend, Saturday afternoon snow depths will be higher than Sunday afternoon snow depths. The 

 also takes you to trail conditions around Minnesota.

This unusually mild weekend weather may coax you outdoors. 

 has dozens of festivals and other events around the state of Minnesota this weekend. One outdoor activity that might be of interest is the 

 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota:

Additional informational about the display can be found 

If you are going to be outdoors in the early evening hours this weekend, temperatures will be very mild. In the Chaska area, you can expect weekend temps in the upper 30s at 5 p.m., dipping to the lower 30s by around 9 p.m., which is very comfortable for December.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 25 degrees on Dec. 21 and 22. We’ll be seeing highs in the lower 40s this weekend. Some of our snow cover will melt.

Weekend weather: Unusually warm; best snow conditions on Saturday

Go Deeper.

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