Weekend forecast: Mild temps; a flurry chance
We had plenty of snow cover one year ago
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Winds will be reasonable this weekend and temps will be warmer than normal. People who are hoping for significant snowfall will have to be patient…it won’t happen this weekend.
Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 30 degrees on Dec. 5. We’re shooting for metro area highs in the mid to upper 30s this Saturday. Highs in the 30s are expected across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday afternoon:
A few spots in southwestern Minnesota may touch 40.
Saturday winds will be very light in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, gusting to less than 10 mph:
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Western Minnesota will see Saturday afternoon wind gusts in the 14-18 mph range.
Plotted values are in knots, with 5 knots equal to about 6 mph and 15 knots equal to around 17 mph.
Back to temperatures, Sunday highs will be in the 30s in most areas:
Some spots in southwestern Minnesota may reach the lower 40s.
Sunday wind gusts will be in the 7-12 mph range in most areas:
Flake chances?
Minnesota and western Wisconsin could see some occasional snow flurries, mainly Saturday afternoon and evening. A few spots might see a light coating of snow, but most areas aren;t expected to see any accumulation.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern for Saturday and Saturday evening:
Eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin could also see a few flurries Sunday afternoon and 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.
Snow cover is minimal
Much of Minnesota has bare ground right now, but there’s some snow cover in northeastern Minnesota. Here's the latest Minnesota snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:
The maps are generated each Thursday, and they show the reported snow depths from Wednesday. You can see that 2- to- 4 inch snow depths are most common in northeastern Minnesota, with some 4- to- 6 inch amounts in parts of Lake County and Cook County.
Compare the Dec. 3, 2020 map to the snow depth map from Dec. 5, 2019:
Our official Twin Cities snow depth was 5 inches on Dec. 5, 2019. The green-shaded area had 4 to 6 inches of snow cover at that time and parts of northeastern Minnesota had more than 18 inches of snow on the ground!
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.
