Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

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

Rain/snow shower chance spreads east Saturday evening

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

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Saturday 6 a.m. weather
National Weather Service

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:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

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

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Saturday 1 p.m. forecast wind chills
National Weather Service

Rain/snow shower chances

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:

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Simulated radar Saturday and Saturday evening
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Snow depths

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.

Here’s the latest snow depth map, courtesy of the Minnesota State Climatology Office and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:

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Thursday snow depth
Minnesota State Climatology Office/Minnesota DNR

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.

Programming note

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.