Western, central and northern Minnesota under windy, dry weather conditions 

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On my Thursday afternoon drive through St. Paul and Minneapolis, I noticed that the snow has pretty much melted in most areas. I saw just a bit of snow in a few spots that don’t receive afternoon sunshine.

We’ve seen two significant dumpings of snow this autumn in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport tallied 7.9 inches of new snow on Oct. 20 and 5.5 inches on Nov. 10.

When you add in a few minor snow events, our official Twin Cities season snowfall total sits at 17.6 inches:

That’s 12.2 inches higher than our average Twin Cities snowfall total for this point in our snow season!

An early start to our snow season doesn’t necessary mean that we’ll have a lot of snow in the coming months. The Minnesota State Climatology Office 

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 38 degrees on Nov. 21. The Twin Cities metro area highs will probably hit around 40 degrees Saturday. Highs are forecast to reach the 40s in southern and west-central Minnesota, with 30s elsewhere:

We’ve had three consecutive weekends with at least one really windy day. That streak ends this weekend, with wind gusts of only 8-16 mph in most areas on Saturday:

Plotted values are in knots, with 7 knots equal to 8 mph and 14 knots equal to 16 mph.

Back to temperatures, Sunday highs are forecast to reach the 30s in the north with lower 40s from far southern Minnesota into west-central Wisconsin:

It’ll be a bit breezy on Sunday, but it won’t be nearly as windy as our recent weekend days. Sunday wind gusts will be in the 18-24 mph range in many spots:

Snow or a mix Saturday night into early Sunday

Snow or a mix of light rain and snow could move into western Minnesota Saturday evening, then spread eastward as it transitions to mostly snow Saturday night. Light snow may linger into Sunday morning in parts of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

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

Some spots in central and northern Minnesota could see an inch or two of snow Saturday night into early Sunday. Any snow accumulation in the Twin Cities metro area Saturday night and early Sunday would be very minimal.

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR 

, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News 

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 40 Monday and Tuesday, followed by lower 40s Wednesday and Thursday. We could see a mix of rain and snow Monday night and Tuesday.

Computer models do not agree on the track of the low pressure system that could bring us our rain and/or snow Monday night and Tuesday. Check forecast updates in case that low pressure system becomes more significant for portions of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

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.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Reasonable winds and reasonable temps are in our weekend forecast. The best chance of rain or snow will be Saturday night and very early on Sunday. That’s not bad for a November weekend. We have details on all that, plus a look at the week ahead and where we stand in our Twin Cities season snowfall.

Weekend forecast: Temps near normal; light snow or a mix Saturday night into Sunday a.m.

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