October snow cover will vanish in the next week
Much of Minnesota should be snow-free again by election day.
Our premature October snow cover will do a vanishing act across Minnesota in the next week.
Record October snows left a blanket of snow cover across much of Minnesota. The heaviest bands of snow cover run either side of a Fargo (2”) to Brainerd (3”) to Duluth (4”) zone. A second zone of snow cover lingers in southern Minnesota with Pipestone reporting 4”, and Worthington 3” as of Tuesday morning. Rochester reports 2”.
Here’s Tuesday’s snow depth map from NOAA.
As of Tuesday, only a trace of snow remains in most of the Twin Cities. With temperatures around the thawing point and strong sunshine today there is already melting, and green grass emerging on south-facing slopes at the Weather Lab in the southwest Twin Cities.
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Late October thaw
The forecast for the rest of this week features thawing temperatures across most of Minnesota. In the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota, temperatures in the 40s to low 50s, combined with plenty of sunshine will melt most of the snow across the southern half of Minnesota by early next week.
Forested areas of northern Minnesota may hang onto a little snow cover, but it will be less than it is now.
It looks like we’ll have to wait for more snow later in November and December to rebuild a more permanent seasonal snow cover across Minnesota.