Winter storm warnings in northern 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

The season’s first blustery fall-like October storm system spun up impressively over Minnesota Wednesday. 

The GOES-16 visible satellite loop above shows the impressive swirl around the low-pressure center in the eastern Dakotas Wednesday afternoon. Note the dry (sunny) slot working through southern Minnesota and the lumpy cumulonimbus clouds in western and northern Minnesota. 

The heaviest rains and strongest storms favored western Minnesota with this system. Check out the radar loop showing an impressive arcing line of strong to severe storms that flared Wednesday afternoon around the low-pressure center eastward into western Minnesota. 

Cells in that storm line did produce brief tornado touchdowns in western Minnesota.

Here’s a shot of a small funnel cloud aloft in that area. 

We can be grateful we’re on the warmer side of this system. It dumped nearly 2 feet of snow in Deadwood, South Dakota, and produced wind gusts to 79 mph in Wasta, South Dakota.

3 NW Wasta [Pennington Co, SD] MESONET reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M79 MPH at 12:25 PM MDT --

Minnesota enjoys cooler weather as we head for the weekend. Highs will be in the 40s north and 50s south through Friday. 

Friday and Saturday mornings bring a threat of frost to southern Minnesota. Saturday will be the coldest morning, with temperatures dipping to near 40 degrees in the inner (I-494/694 loop) Twin Cities core. Lows in the middle 30s in the suburbs and most of southern Minnesota could bring widespread frost. 

Sunday brings the sunniest and mildest day this weekend with highs in the mid-60s south to near 60 north. 

Monday’s highs will reach 70 degrees again across southern Minnesota.

Several forecast models suggest colder temperatures and a better chance for frost in the inner Twin Cities late next week. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

The first frost of the season for parts of southern Minnesota looks likely Saturday morning. 

GOES-16 visible satellite loop Wednesday afternoon 

Storm winds down; Twin Cities' first frost in sight?

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox