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

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We’ll have a lot of clouds this weekend, plus snow and freezing drizzle at times. 

With snow in the weekend forecast, I’ll start with a look at our current snow cover. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reports 8 inches of snow cover right now. The latest snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office in St. Paul shows 8 to 12 inches of snow depth from south-central Minnesota through much of the metro area and northward.

There’s one foot or more of snow on the ground across most of north-central and northeastern Minnesota , with over 18 inches of snow cover in parts of Cook County. Most areas will see some additional snow this weekend.

We’ll probably start out with a mix of freezing drizzle and snowflakes Friday night and Saturday morning. That mix is expected to transition to mainly drizzle and then snowflakes as we go through Saturday afternoon and evening. The snow tapers off in most areas Sunday morning. Some roads, side streets and sidewalks will be icy Friday night and Saturday morning. 

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

Weekend snow amounts in the 1 to 2 inch range will be common, with 3 inches or more possible in parts of southeastern Minnesota.

Lake-enhanced snowfall of 4 to 6 inches could occur along and near the North Shore of Lake Superior.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR 

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

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 25 degrees on Jan. 30. Metro area highs will probably creep into the lower 30s this Saturday. Southern Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin will also reach the lower 30s, with mainly 20s elsewhere.

Saturday will be breezy, with wind gusts in the 16-22 mph range in most areas.

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 18 knots equal to 20.7 mph.

Back to temperatures: Sunday highs will reach the lower 30s in most of the southern half of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin, with 20s elsewhere.

Sunday winds will be lighter, with gusts of 10 mph or less in eastern Minnesota:

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

We’ll have a lot of clouds this weekend, plus snow and freezing drizzle at times. We have your updated weekend forecast.

Weekend forecast: Freezing drizzle and snow Saturday; snow tapers off Sunday morning

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