Bright, chilly Saturday; warmer Sunday, with flakes possible
Big arctic plunge on Wednesday
We’ll have cool temperatures but ample sunshine Saturday as we shovel and plow out from our Friday snowstorm.
The official Friday snow total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 3.7 inches. Snow amounts were lower to the northeast, with Shoreview reporting 2 inches. The National Weather Service tallied 4.6 inches at their office in Chanhassen and there was a report of 5.6 inches in Mound.
Here are some additional snow reports, all in Minnesota:
10 inches in Marshall and Garvin
9 inches Madison and Granite Falls
8.5 inches North Mankato
8 inches Albert Lea and Blue Earth
7.6 inches Fairmont
7.5 inches St. Peter
6.5 inches Owatonna
4.7 inches Victoria
4.5 inches Hopkins
4.1 inches Rochester
3.7 inches in Harmony
Lake-effect snow totals included 6.5 inches in Two Harbors and 7.7 inches at the Duluth Airport.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Friday snow totals in west-central Wisconsin were fairly low; River Falls reported 1.3 inches and Baldwin tallied 1.2 inches.
The snow continued overnight Friday night in parts of Iowa. Mason City reported a storm total of 9 inches and Des Moines tallied 14.3 inches of new snow.
You can see a NWS plot of snow reports here. This is how the linked map looked at 10 a.m. Saturday:
You can hover over any data point on the linked NWS snowfall map to see the location and time of the snow measurement. You can also zoom in or slide the map to see more snow report details.
If you go to the link later Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, you may have to adjust the slider to 36 hours to get reports that came in Friday afternoon.
Road conditions
Crews continue to clear the snow from roads today. Updated Minnesota road conditions can be found here. Wisconsin road conditions can be found here.
More snow?
There is a chance of a few stray flurries in far northern Minnesota Saturday afternoon. Areas of light snow could develop Saturday night in northern Minnesota, then spread southeastward on Sunday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 p.m. Sunday:
It doesn’t show up on the NAM model, but one other forecast model shows occasional light snow or a mix in parts of west-central and southwestern Minnesota on Sunday.
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.
Temperature trends
Our Saturday afternoon highs will be mainly in the teens. That’s cool for this time of year; our our average Twin Cities Jan. 15 high is 23 degrees.
Sunday highs top 30 in much of Minnesota, with some 20s to the east:
Sunday afternoon wind gust are expected to be in the 15-20 mph range in many areas, but closer to 25 mph in far western Minnesota:
Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 17 knots equal to 19.6 mph.
Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 20s on Monday (Martin Luther King Day), followed by lower 30s Tuesday.
Much colder air moves in for Wednesday and Thursday, with highs in the single digits. Highs rebound to the upper teens on Friday.
Weather nugget: Our season snowfall total at MSP airport is now up to 28.5 inches. That’s 4.5 inches above normal for this point in our snow season.
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.