A quiet Monday; Tuesday snowstorm update
Mild temps to start 2021
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Our Sunday snow brightened up the landscape. Most of Minnesota won’t see any accumulating snow on Monday, but there could be a few stray flurries.
Tuesday snowstorm update
Computer models are coming into better agreement on the snow potential for Tuesday into early Wednesday.
Here’s the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model for Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning:
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The NAM model shows the heaviest snow band from central Iowa to central Wisconsin. Some spots in that heavy snow band could see 8 to 10 inches of snow. Plowable snow is expected to fall over much of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and eastern portions of Nebraska and South Dakota.
Here are the probabilities of 4 inch or higher snow accumulations (from Tuesday into Wednesday), posted by the Twin Cities NWS office:
The exact track of the low pressure system, plus its speed, will be huge factors in final storm totals. As of now, it looks like the highest totals in Minnesota will be in the far southeast, where 6 or more inches of snow are possible from Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night.
At this point, a first estimate of Twin Cities snow accumulations from the storm would be in the 3 to 5 inch range, with the snow starting Tuesday afternoon. Check for forecast updates on Monday.
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
Monday highs will be mainly in the teens, with some lower 20s in far southern Minnesota:
Most metro area highs will be around 20 degrees.
There could be some single-digit highs in far northern Minnesota.
Monday wind gusts will be in the 14-20 mph range:
Plotted values are in knots, with 14 knots equal to 16 mph.
Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro-area highs are projected to reach the lower 20s on Tuesday, followed by mid-20s Wednesday and upper-teens Thursday. We’ll usher in 2021 with a high in the lower 20s on New Year’s Day. Our average Twin Cities high temp is 24 degrees this time of year.
Temps may be a bit warmer than normal next weekend into the start of the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temperatures in Minnesota and Wisconsin from Jan. 2 through Jan. 6:
We’ll see if that pans out.
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.
