Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

On average, April is our windiest month of the year in the Twin Cities. May is our second-windiest month of the year, with March not far behind. You get the picture…it’s not unusual to see strong winds this time of year. 

We’ll have gusty winds this weekend in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 43 degrees on March 20. We’ll top out in the mid 50s this Saturday, sharing 50s with most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

There could be some 40s up along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Saturday winds will be gusting as high as 25 to 32 mph at times:

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 25 knots equal to about 29 mph.

Back to temperatures, Sunday highs will be in the 50s in most areas:

There could be a stray 60 in the metro area and parts of southern Minnesota.  Highs in the 40s are possible up along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Sunday wind gusts will be similar to the Saturday gusts.

 shows moderate drought (shaded beige) over much of the northern third of Minnesota plus parts of west-central and southwestern Minnesota:

Portions of Kittson County in far northwestern Minnesota and Rock County in far southwestern Minnesota are in severe drought right now.

The yellow-shaded area (which includes the Twin Cities metro) is listed as abnormally dry, but not yet in drought. By the way, western Wisconsin is also listed as abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

We could see some rain showers at times on Sunday. The rain chance arrives Sunday morning in western Minnesota, with rain chances arriving in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Sunday afternoon.

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

Our metro area shower chance will increase by late Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening.

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 

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

Get ready for some bad hair days this weekend; winds will be gusty. Saturday looks like the driest day of the weekend. We have details on all that, plus an update on drought conditions in Minnesota.

Weekend forecast: warmer temps and gusty winds

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox