Pleasant Sunday weather, with mild temps

A look back at record-setting snow in April 2018

Our weather will be pleasant this Sunday, and it’ll cooperate with any plans that you have for walking, jogging or biking….while practicing social-distancing.

Temperature trends

Sunday highs will be in the 50s across in most of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin, with some 40s in northwestern corner of Minnesota and also in much of northeastern Minnesota. We’ll probably top out in the upper 50s in the Twin Cities metro area. Our average high is 52 degrees this time of year in the Twin Cities. Breezes will pick up a bit Sunday afternoon.

Monday highs range from 40s in much of the northern third of Minnesota to 60s in southern Minnesota:

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Monday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Twin Cities metro area highs reach around 70 on Tuesday, then it gets cooler. Metro area highs are projected to be in the mid 50s Wednesday, followed by mid 40s Thursday and upper 40s on Friday.

Precipitation chances

The daylight hours of Sunday are expected to be dry in most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

A few rain/snow showers could develop over parts of northwestern Minnesota Sunday evening. Areas of rain showers and snow showers will probably spread across portions of far northern Minnesota overnight Sunday night into Monday morning, then transition to mainly rain showers in the north by Monday afternoon. Some very scattered rain showers are possible in central and southern Minnesota on Monday.

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

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Simulated radar Sunday evening through Monday afternoon
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.

Snowy April of 2018

On this date in 2018, there were still 5 inches of snow on the ground in the Twin Cities. A snowstorm gave us another 15.8 inches of snow from April 13 into April 16 of 2018.

snowstorm
During the spring blizzard of April 14, 2018, the snow fell quickly and many drivers, such as this one on Washington Ave. on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, needed a push after getting stuck.
Judy Griesedieck for MPR News

A huge swath of heavy snow was deposited by that historic April blizzard:

Here are the April 2018 weather stats for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, with daily snow totals highlighted:

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April 2018 MSP airport weather data
National Weather Service

We had 26.1 inches of snow in the Twin Cities in April 2018, making it the snowiest April in Twin Cities weather records:

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April snowfall extremes
Minnesota State Climatology Office

It warmed up by the third week of April 2018, and all the snow had melted at MSP airport by April 24.

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.