Updated snow reports and a look at the week ahead
Mild temps return on Tuesday
I measured 2 inches of new snow in St. Paul by around 11 a.m., and it’s a good thing that I didn’t wait until afternoon to check out the total. More than half an inch of the snow melted quickly when the sun came out this afternoon…and the new snow is still shrinking.
The official Sunday snow tally at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 1.5 inches. The highest snow totals in the 7-county Twin Cities metro area were in the north and northwest metro. I saw a report of 4 inches in East Bethel (northern Anoka County) and 2.5 inches in Maple Plain (western Hennepin County).
Wright County snow reports include 4 inches in Buffalo and 6 inches in Clearwater. I saw a 7 inch snow total from Atwater (Kandiyohi County) with 7.5 inches in Willmar. Stearns County reports include 8.5 inches a few miles southeast of Pleasant Lake and 7.5 inches in Kimball. Canby, in Yellow Medicine County of western Minnesota, tallied 8 inches of snow. Near Webb Lake, in Burnett County of northwestern Wisconsin, they saw 8 inches of new snow today.
You can look at the National Weather Service plot of snowfall reports here. This is how the NWS map looked around 1 p.m. Sunday:
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You can hover over any data point on the linked NWS site to get the location and snow total plus the time of the measurement. Additional snow reports could still come in, but some measurements that are taken this afternoon will be lower than actual snow totals, due to melting.
If you're wondering about road conditions, Minnesota road conditions can be found here. Wisconsin road conditions can be found here.
More snow Sunday night and early Monday?
Some light snow may move into northwestern Minnesota Sunday evening, then spread southeastward overnight and early Monday. The metro area could see a few flakes around daybreak on Monday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from this evening through 9 a.m. Monday:
You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Temperature trends
Monday highs will be in the teens in northern Minnesota, with 20s in the south:
Winds will be lighter on Monday, gusting to 10-15 mph in the south:
Plotted wind gusts are in knots, with 10 knots equal to 11.5 mph.
After a cool Monday, temps rebound nicely Tuesday and we’ll stay warmer than normal the rest of the week. Twin Cities highs are projected to reach the lower 40s Tuesday, followed by mid 40s Wednesday, upper 40s Thursday, and mid 40s on Friday. Highs in the 40s are also expected next weekend.
Above-normal temps may linger into the second week of March. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a strong chance of above normal temps in Minnesota and western Wisconsin from March 7 through March 13:
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