Unseasonably cold week with periods of rain and wet snow coming
Sunday afternoon temperatures in the Twin Cities were just in the low 30s on a day when the average high temperature is 57. Get used to October feeling like mid to late November.
Low clouds will hang around Sunday night to limit radiational cooling. But the air mass is so cold that the Twin Cities area will have overnight lows in the 20s while some areas up north, including parts of the Iron Range, could see upper teens by Monday morning.
Cold air will keep on coming
The whole upcoming week will be a chilly one all across Minnesota. Cold Canadian air and ample cloud cover to cut off sunshine will hold the daytime temperatures well below normal.
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Monday will bring high temperatures in the mid to upper 30s for just about all of the state.
The rest of the week should see high temperatures of mid to upper 30s to around 40 for northern Minnesota and upper 30s to mid 40s for southern sections of the state.
An unsettled week will bring periods of rain and wet snow
A weak disturbance will spread light snow showers across about the southern half of Minnesota on Monday. The showers should change to mainly rain showers as the day warms a bit.
Enough snow to shovel on Tuesday?
A stronger weather system will track snow into western Minnesota Tuesday morning and push it eastward across the state during the day. Here is where snow is forecast to be falling at 7 a.m. on Tuesday (blue is snow and dark blue is heavier snow):
Forecasting snowfall amounts in October is highly uncertain because wet snow or a rain/snow mix does not accumulate well and because of warm ground temperatures that can melt some or all of the snow rather quickly.
Forecast models are calling for the heavier snow to fall across central Minnesota where anywhere from 2 to 6 inches of snow appears likely as of now. I think the Twin Cities area will get a few inches of white, much of it melting soon after falling, with a large variation due to uncertainties and the size of the metro area. Southern Minnesota might see a rain/wet snow mix or even all rain near Iowa.
More precipitation later in the week
One weather system will bring rain, thunderstorms and maybe some snow to Minnesota on Thursday and into Friday.
Then yet another, larger system might bring snow to much of the state by about Sunday and Monday.
Continued very chilly
High temperatures next weekend should be mainly in the 30s again. Here is a look at forecast highs for next Saturday:
The long-term outlook for the week after the upcoming week is for this persistent cold spell to continue to about the end of October. Below is the 6-10 day temperature probability forecast for October 24-28, next Saturday through the following Wednesday, indicating a very high likelihood of colder-than-normal temperatures for that period:
