Mild Saturday, warmer on Sunday; any snow in sight?
A look at recent March and April snow totals
The past four days have all been warmer than normal, and that trend will continue this weekend.
Our average Twin Cities high temp is 36 degrees this time of year. The metro area will top out around 50 degrees Saturday afternoon. Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will see highs in the 40s to around 50, but a few upper 30s are possible near Lake Superior. Winds will be fairly light in eastern Minnesota this Saturday, but it’ll be a bit breezy in western Minnesota.
Temperature trends
Sunday highs will range from the mid 60s in southwestern Minnesota to 40s in northeastern Minnesota:
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Twin Cities metro area highs will be around 60 tomorrow. 60 is our average Twin Cities high on April 19.
Sunday will be breezy, with gusts in the 20-27 mph range:
Plotted gusts are in knots, with 20 knots equal to 23 mph.
Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the lower 60s Monday, then mid 60s on Tuesday. Our Twin Cities record high for March 9 is 61, so we have a good chance of breaking that daily record on Tuesday. Highs retreat to the lower 50s on Wednesday, followed by around 50 degrees on Thursday and Friday.
Any rain or snow?
This weekend and the start of next week look fairly dry. We’ll probably see some periods of rain Wednesday and Wednesday night. The Canadian forecast model (GEM, or Global Environmental Multiscale model) is showing the following precipitation pattern from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning:
A mix of rain and some wet flakes is possible in northern Minnesota on Wednesday and Wednesday night….possibly changing to all flakes for a while Thursday morning.
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.
Any more snow for the Twin Cities?
Most Minnesota residents know that this is too early to put away the snow shovel. In the Twin Cities we average 10.2 inches of snow in March. Last March, MSP airport tallied just 1.3 inches, but then we saw 7.3 inches of snow in April! Our average snow total is 2.5 inches for April. Here are monthly snow totals at MSP airport for the past few years:
Note that the Twin Cities had 26.1 inches of snow in April of 2018. I remember that many people were very happy that most of that snow had melted by April 21!
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.