Quiet Saturday weather; rain chance north Sunday a.m., then in the south Sunday p.m.

Chilly start to the week

Our Saturday weather will be fairly typical for April 17.

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have Saturday highs in the 50s. The metro area will reach the upper 50s, but a stray 60 can’t be ruled out. Our average Twin Cities high temp is 59 degrees this time of year.

Sunday temps and winds

A cold front arrives in northwestern Minnesota Sunday morning, then progresses slowly southeastward in the afternoon and evening.

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Sunday afternoon highs will reach the 60s in the south, with 50s in central and northeastern Minnesota and 40s in the northwest. Here’s a look at 4 p.m. Sunday forecast temps:

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Sunday 4 p.m. CDT forecast temps
National Weather Service

The Twin Cities metro area will top out in the lower 60s.

Sunday wind gusts of over 25 mph are expected in northwestern Minnesota:

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Sunday 1 p.m. forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 17 knots equal to 19.6 mph. Wind gusts of 16-22 mph are on tap for eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Rain/snow chances

Periods of rain showers are expected in much of northwestern and north-central Minnesota Sunday morning. The showers could mix with a few snow flakes at times.  Rain showers spread to the east and southeast Sunday afternoon. A few showers could arrive in parts of the Twin Cities metro area late Sunday afternoon, with the shower chance lingering into Sunday evening. We could also see a mix of rain and snow showers overnight Sunday night.

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

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Simulated radar Sunday and Sunday evening
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

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

The coming work week will start out chilly. Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be in the lower 40s Monday, followed by mid 40s Tuesday and upper 40s Wednesday. Our highs rebound to the upper 50s Thursday and the lower 60s on Friday.  

Next weekend and the final few days of April may be a bit cooler than normal. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for below-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin for that period:

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Temperature outlook April 24 through April 30
NWS Climate Prediction Center

The outlook is for the average temp over those 7 days; maybe we’ll sneak in a mild day somewhere.

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.