Impressive Sunday snow totals; cool start to the week, then temps rebound by Thursday

Sunday’s snow came down very intensely at times. I had heavy snow in St. Paul around mid-afternoon on Sunday, and my Sunday snow total was just a bit below 5 inches. The street in front of my house was warm enough to melt the snow before it caused travel problems, but it was a different story in parts of Minnesota and western Wisconsin, where some roads and ramps became slushy or snow-covered.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation will have reports on road conditions. Wisconsin road conditions can be found here.

Snow totals

The snow hadn’t yet ended in eastern Minnesota or western Wisconsin by 6 p.m. Sunday, but we already had some impressive snow totals.

Lakeville (in Dakota County) had 7.5 inches of snow, with 7 inch reports from Burnsville and Apple Valley. Woodbury (Washington county) tallied 6 inches. Savage (Scott County) reported 6.5 inches of snow. while Shakopee came in with 7.5 inches. There was a 7.8 inch report from Bloomington, in southern Hennepin county.

Some of the highest southern Minnesota snow totals included 10 inches in Wabasha and 7.4 inches in Rochester, with 7 inches at Albert Lea. Additional snow is expected Sunday evening in parts of the central and east metro and Sunday evening and overnight in parts of southeastern Minnesota and in western Wisconsin, so some of these preliminary Sunday snow totals will increase.

The National Weather Service map of snowfall reports will show snow totals as they come in. Here’s how the map looked at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday:

You can click on any data point on the NWS site or hover over it for the exact total plus the time and location of the snow measurement. It’ll be interesting to see how the map looks when updated reports come in from eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Additional snow

As mentioned earlier, the central and eastern portions of the metro will see a bit of additional snow Sunday evening before it tapers off. Additional snow is expected Sunday evening, and overnight Sunday night into early Monday in southeastern Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin. Winter storm warnings continue into early Monday morning in southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin. You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

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

Here’s the snow forecast for southeastern Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin for Sunday evening and overnight Sunday night:

And here’s the northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin snow Sunday evening into Monday, with “tonight” referring to Sunday night:

Easter Sunday snowfall record in the Twin Cities

According to Meteorologist and Climatologist Mark Seeley’s study of the Climatology of Easter Sunday in the Twin Cities, the highest official Twin Cities Easter Sunday snowfall from 1891 to 2004 was 2.5 inches, set in 1929. I checked Easter Sunday snowfall data from 2005 through 2019 and found measurable snow at MSP airport on only one Easter Sunday, with 1 inch of snow tallied on Easter Sunday of 2008. Our Easter 2020 snow total of 5.1 inches (through 7 p.m.) at MSP airport sets a new Twin Cities record for the most snow on Easter Sunday.

Temperature trends

Highs in Minnesota and western Wisconsin will be mainly in the 30s Monday and Tuesday, with a few spots touching 40 degrees.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach about 40 on Monday and Tuesday, followed by lower 40s Wednesday, upper 40s Thursday and lower 50s on Friday.

There will be a lot of highs in the 50s in central and southern Minnesota on Friday, with 40s elsewhere:

It looks like we may touch 60 in the Twin Cities next Saturday. That’ll feel great.