Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

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Our first weekend of astronomical spring is starting out very chilly. Check out these 6 a.m. temperatures (TMP column) in northern Minnesota:

Crane Lake, Cook and Ely all reported 15 degrees below zero at 6 a.m.! Our 6 a.m. temperature at MSP airport was a reasonable 21 degrees above zero.

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 44 degrees on March 21. We’ll probably top out in the upper 30s this Saturday in the metro area. Most of Minnesota will see Saturday highs in the 30s, with a sprinkling of upper 20s in parts of the northeast:

Saturday afternoon wind chills will be in the teens in the north, with 20s elsewhere:

There will be a chance of rain showers or snow showers in portions of western Minnesota Saturday afternoon, and that rain/snow chance spreads eastward to include eastern Minnesota, the Twin Cities metro area and western Wisconsin Saturday evening into Saturday night.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern Saturday and Saturday evening:

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR 

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

There’s little or no snow cover right now across the southern half of Minnesota, but there’s still substantial snow cover in parts of northern Minnesota.

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

Much of northeastern Minnesota has 18 inches or more of snow cover, and portions of Lake and Cook counties of northeastern Minnesota have snow depths of 30 inches or more. The snow cover is expected to shrink a bit this coming week, as warmer temps arrive.

Updraft will be updated by around 10 a.m. to include the remainder of the weekend and a look at next week.

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

We’re starting out very chilly, and Saturday afternoon highs will be cooler than average. We have your temperature details and the timing of rain/snow shower chances later today.

Chilly Saturday, with afternoon rain/snow shower chance to west

Go Deeper.

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