Dangerous weather Wednesday with snow, high winds and brutal cold
Western Minnesota sees whiteout conditions
A strong cold front is pushing across Minnesota Wednesday, bringing snow, high winds and plummeting temperatures.
Wednesday’s forecast
As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, a strong cold front has made its way through northwestern Minnesota, causing some temperatures to already fall below zero and winds near the North Dakota border to gust over 50 mph. As the front heads south, snow, cold and high winds will spread across the state through the day.
By this afternoon, most of the state will be below zero, with wind chills far colder.
The front is also bringing light snow, with most of Minnesota likely to see an inch or less, and parts of northern Minnesota that could see 2 to 3 inches.
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The snow moves through quickly, and is already to southern Minnesota by afternoon, and then it clears out by Wednesday evening.
However, because of the high winds, the snow has already been causing whiteout conditions near the Red River Valley.
Given that the snow and wind are spreading south, almost all of western Minnesota is under a blizzard warning (highlighted in red).
Other portions of the state are under winter weather advisories (purple), wind chill warnings (gray) and wind chill advisories (blue), for the variety of dangerous conditions the state will experience.
The same areas in the blizzard warning, as well as all of northern Minnesota, could see winds chills 30 to 40 below or colder on Wednesday.
By Thursday morning, the entire state will see perilously cold wind chills at 20 to 40 below or colder.
The extended forecast will be updated around 9 a.m.
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.