The weekend brings cold, then heavy snow
Lake effect snow continues Friday night
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Minnesota will see cold temperatures overnight Friday, then a quiet Saturday before a snowstorm hits the second half of the weekend.
Friday night and Saturday
Most of the light snow that moved across Minnesota has cleared off, leaving well under an inch of snow for much of the state. The one place that has seen higher totals is along the North Shore, where lake enhancement produced a couple snow totals of 4 or 5 inches. An additional inch or 2 is possible before the snow winds down overnight Friday.
Saturday starts off cold, with most of the state below zero, thanks in part to mostly clear skies.
With winds factored in, northwestern Minnesota could see wind chills as cold as minus 30, prompting a wind chill advisory through 6 a.m. Saturday.
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There is swath of eastern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, that could see clouds linger in the overnight, keeping temperatures slightly milder. Compare the 1 a.m. sky cover (cloudiness) forecast to the Saturday lows, and it’s easy to see the influence clouds can have on the temperature.
Otherwise, the Saturday stays relatively quiet, and there will even be some sunshine across the state.
Weekend snowstorm
Already by Saturday evening, snow starts pushing in from the southwest, then spreads across southern Minnesota by early Sunday.
With the storm poised to track along the Iowa border, the heaviest snow will likely fall near or just north of Interstate 90, where some places could get over 6 inches of snow.
The snow totals diminish quickly on the north side of the storm, so for central Minnesota little snow is expected and northern Minnesota could be seeing sunshine.
For the Twin Cities, there could be a large contrast in snow totals between the south and north metro area. It currently looks like 2 to 4 inches in the north metro area and up to 5 or 6 inches on the south side, but these totals could vary with even a slight change in the storm track.
Regardless of exact snow totals, plan for slow and even treacherous travel on Sunday. A winter storm watch has already been issued from Saturday night through Sunday.
The system moves out quickly by Sunday evening, but it will stay windy across southwest Minnesota, so even as the snow departs there still could be areas of blowing snow.
After Sunday’s storm, snow chances look limited for most of next week. Light snow could clip northern Minnesota on Monday, and another light round could pass over the state Wednesday.
Temperatures
Saturday highs will be in the teens and twenties across Minnesota, and the entire state is likely to be back in the 20s by Monday. Here are the expected high temperatures for the Twin Cities through Tuesday:
Have a safe weekend!
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.
