Snow amounts highest in southern Minnesota overnight and Sunday
Metro area will see some snow too
The Saturday afternoon high temp at Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport was a very chilly 32 degrees. That’s 22 degrees cooler than our average Oct. 24 high of 54. We may very well set a new record for our coldest Oct. 24 high temp in the Twin Cities, which is currently listed as 33 degrees and was set back in 1887.
Sunday highs will range from the upper 20s to lower 30s across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:
To put these Sunday highs in perspective, 32 degrees is our average Twin Cities high temp on Dec. 1.
Snow update
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Snow is expected to spread across much of southwestern Minnesota and parts of south-central Minnesota Saturday evening, then expand eastward as we go through the overnight hours of Saturday night. The Twin Cities metro area could see a stray snow flurry Saturday evening, but any accumulating snow in the metro area should hold off until after midnight Saturday night. Periods of snow are likely Sunday from the southern third of Minnesota into Wisconsin. Patchy light snow showers or flurries are possible Sunday in central and northern Minnesota.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern Saturday evening through Sunday evening:
How much snow?
The far northern part of the Twin Cities metro area may see just a coating of snow. Less than one inch is expected for most of the metro area from late Saturday night through Sunday, but a few spots in the far south metro could see more than one inch
The highest snow totals Saturday evening through Sunday are expected in a swath across southwestern and south-central Minnesota, with 2 to 3 inches and some spotty 4 inch totals possible:
A winter weather advisory begins in southwestern Minnesota at 7 pm Saturday evening and it’ll continue through Sunday evening.
Here are details of the advisory:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Sioux Falls SD 248 PM CDT Sat Oct 24 2020 IAZ001-002-MNZ072-080-081-089-090-097-098-SDZ061-062-066>069- 250400- /O.CON.KFSD.WW.Y.0021.201025T0000Z-201026T0600Z/ Lyon-Osceola-Murray-Cottonwood-Nobles-Jackson-Pipestone-Rock- McCook-Minnehaha-Turner-Lincoln-Bon Homme-Yankton- 248 PM CDT Sat Oct 24 2020 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 1 AM CDT MONDAY... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 inches. * WHERE...Portions of southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. * WHEN...From 7 PM this evening to 1 AM CDT Monday. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1.
A winter weather advisory for Martin County in south-central Minnesota begins at 1 a.m. Sunday and runs through Sunday evening.
You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Temperature trends
We’ll have to wait a bit for milder temps to arrive. Twin City metro area highs are projected to be around 30 degrees on Monday, followed by lower 30s Tuesday, upper 30s Wednesday, around 40 on Thursday and middle 40s Friday. We may creep into the lower 50s on Halloween afternoon.
The new outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center is encouraging, showing a tendency toward above-normal temps for the first week in November:
Milder temps will feel really nice after our current cold spell!
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.