Weekend forecast: Saturday rain showers, with a rain/snow mix in northern Minn.; dry Sunday

Spring weekends often include some rain. Sometimes we also see snowflakes.

Parts of western Minnesota will see scattered rain showers Friday afternoon. Most of Minnesota, plus western Wisconsin, will have periods of precipitation Friday night and Saturday. It’ll be rain showers in the Twin Cities metro area as well as southern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin. Northern Minnesota will probably have a mix of rain and wet snow late Friday night and Saturday, as well as some areas of light freezing rain.

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

Here’s the NWS forecast for northern Minnesota snow amounts late Friday night and Saturday:

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.

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have plenty of sunshine on Sunday.

Weekend temps and winds

Our average March 27 high temperature is 47 degrees in the Twin Cities. Metro area highs will be around 50 degrees on Saturday. Southern Minnesota will see Saturday highs in the lower 50s, with mainly 40s in northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

Some spots in northeastern Minnesota could top out in the upper 30s.

Winds will pick up Saturday afternoon, with gusts of 15-23 mph in many areas:

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 18 knots equal to about 21 mph.

Sunday highs will be in the 50s in southern and central Minnesota, with 40s to the north:

Sunday wind gusts will be a bit lighter, generally in the 12-17 mph range:

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.