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

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Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reported just a trace of snow this weekend. The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen tallied one inch of snow overnight Saturday night.

A sampling of weekend snow reports includes 4 inches in Dassel (which is in Meeker county, west of the metro) and 4 inches in St. Cloud. To the north, 4 inches of new snow were tallied in Moose Lake, and 5.8 inches at the Duluth NWS office. Holyoke, which is between Sandstone and Duluth, had 7.5 inches of new snow at last report, and 4.8 inches of fresh snow were recorded a few miles northwest of Two Harbors.

. You can hover over any snow report to get the exact snow total, plus the location and time of the measurement. You can also slide the map around to show snowfall reports from other parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Here’s how the snow report map looked Sunday morning:

Additional snow reports will be posted as they come in.

The rain and rain/snow mix over eastern Minnesota will taper off from west to east as we go through the afternoon. Most areas will see a transition to scattered rain showers before the precipitation moves completely away.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from late Sunday morning through Sunday evening:

Some areas will see the setting sun this evening.

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The NWS has extended the winter storm warning that had been set to expire at 11 a.m. in parts of northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. The winter storm warning continues until 2 p.m. in Carlton county and southern St. Louis county of Minnesota, as well as in Douglas and Bayfield counties of Wisconsin:

Details of that extension of the winter storm warning:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Duluth MN 1052 AM CDT Sun Mar 29 2020 ...RAIN/SNOW MIX CONTINUES TO FALL OVER PORTIONS OF THE NORTHLAND... .A rain/snow mix continues to fall over portions of the Northland, mainly from the North Shore south towards the Twin Ports and south towards Pine county. Some heavy wet snow continues to fall in the Duluth area, with some intensification in the precipitation expected along the South Shore this afternoon over northern Douglas and Bayfield counties. Due to this continued precipitation, which could cause some slushy, slippery roads, we have decided to continue the Winter Storm Warning from southern St. Louis county/Carlton county east towards Bayfield through 2 PM CDT this afternoon. This activity is expected to diminish in intensify later this afternoon. MNZ037-291900- /O.EXT.KDLH.WS.W.0003.000000T0000Z-200329T1900Z/ Carlton and South St. Louis- Including the city of Duluth 1052 AM CDT Sun Mar 29 2020 ...WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM CDT THIS AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Heavy wet snow. Additional snow accumulations of up to one to two inches. * WHERE...Carlton and South St. Louis County. This includes the Tribal Lands of the Fond du Lac Band. * WHEN...Until 2 PM CDT this afternoon. * IMPACTS...Plan on slushy and slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. Road conditions can also be found at 511mn.org for Minnesota or 511wi.gov for Wisconsin.

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Sunday afternoon highs will be in the 40s across most of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few spots in western Minnesota top 50 degrees. It’ll feel cooler than the air temp this afternoon, due to strong winds. Here are some of the peak wind gusts that are possible today:

Monday highs will be mainly in the 50s, with a few 40s in parts of the far north:

I think that we’ll see highs in the upper 50s in parts of the Twin Cities metro area. Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 50s Tuesday, followed by lower 50s Wednesday and Thursday, then around 50 on Friday.

Our official Twin Cities snowfall total sits at 1.3 inches so far this March. That’s well below our 30-year average of 10.2 inches in March.

Last March, 10.5 inches of snow were tallied at MSP airport. In March of 2010, MSP airport reported zero snow. By the way, the highest March snowfall total in Twin Cities weather records was 40 inches, in 1951.

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 have your forecast for the rest of this weekend, plus a look at the week ahead. We also have some weekend snowfall reports and a look at how Twin Cities March snow totals have varied in recent years.

Windy Sunday afternoon, shower chances linger in some areas; updated snow reports

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