Christmas snow update; Sunday/Sunday night storm could bring heavy snow to the north

Our official Twin Cities snow cover (at MSP airport) was zero this Christmas morning. The NWS calls it a white Christmas if there is one inch or more of snow cover on Christmas morning.

Yesterday’s 40s melted away snow cover in many areas, but there’s still plenty of snow on the ground in central and northern Minnesota, where additional snow is falling today.

Saturday snow amounts are expected to be highest in the north. Here’s the NWS snow forecast for Saturday:

There is a winter weather advisory until 6 p.m. this Saturday for 2 to 5 inches of snow in Clay, Wilkin, Becker and Otter Tail counties of western Minnesota.

Here’s the snow potential in northeastern Minnesota:

The Twin Cities metro area is near the southern edge of today’s snow, with some periods of light snow possible this Saturday afternoon.

Updated Minnesota road conditions can be found here. Wisconsin road conditions can be found here.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Sunday/Sunday night snowstorm potential

Forecast models show a storm system spreading significant snow across much of Minnesota plus parts of Wisconsin Sunday afternoon into Monday.

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

NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) model shows a similar pattern:

Southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area may see a wintry mix at times, in addition to the snow.

Here are NWS estimates of heavy snow potential:

A winter storm watch covers roughly the northern half of Minnesota from Sunday evening through much of Monday.

At this point, it looks like the Twin Cities metro area could see 2 to 3 inches of snow, mainly from Sunday evening into early Monday morning. Check forecast updates.

Temperature trends

Christmas highs are expected to range from single digits in far northwestern Minnesota to near 30 in far southern Minnesota. The Twin Cities will see highs in the 20s. Our average Twin Cities high is 26 degrees this time of year.

Sunday highs range from teens in far northern Minnesota to 30s in the southeast:

Sunday wind gusts will be in the 15-22 mph range in many areas:

Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 14 knots equal to 16.1 mph.

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities highs are projected to reach the mid 20s Tuesday, followed by single-digit highs on Wednesday and Thursday and then upper teens on Friday.

Your warmest coat is recommended for Wednesday and Thursday.