Sat. afternoon snow in western Minn. spreads eastward by evening; more snow Sunday p.m.

Updates on snow amounts

I’ll start with this weather nugget: Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport received seven-tenths of an inch of snow Friday evening. That brought our Twin Cities season snowfall total to 29.2 inches. That’s 2.7 inches above normal for this point in our snow season.

We’ll be adding to that season snowfall total this weekend.

Saturday/Saturday evening snow

A batch of snow moves into western Minnesota Saturday afternoon, then spreads into eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday evening.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from noon Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday:

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NAM simulated radar noon Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

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

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HRRR simulated radar noon Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

The snow is expected to hold off until after about 5 p.m. across most of the Twin Cities metro area, where we could see between 1 and 2 inches of snow Saturday evening.

Forecast snow amounts are highest in southern Minnesota later today and this evening:

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Saturday/Saturday night snow forecast
National Weather Service

A winter weather advisory covers much of southern Minnesota for part of Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening:

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Winter weather advisory (blue) Saturday afternoon and evening
National Weather Service

The winter weather advisory starts at at noon in Marshall and at 3 p.m. in Mankato and Albert Lea, and it will continue until midnight Saturday night.

Here are details of the advisory in south-central Minnesota:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN 252 AM CST Sat Jan 22 2022 MNZ065-067-073>076-082>085-091>093-222115- /O.NEW.KMPX.WW.Y.0006.220122T2100Z-220123T0600Z/ Renville-Sibley-Redwood-Brown-Nicollet-Le Sueur-Watonwan- Blue Earth-Waseca-Steele-Martin-Faribault-Freeborn- Including the cities of Olivia, Gaylord, Redwood Falls, New Ulm, St Peter, Le Sueur, St James, Mankato, Waseca, Owatonna, Fairmont, Blue Earth, and Albert Lea 252 AM CST Sat Jan 22 2022 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO MIDNIGHT CST TONIGHT... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 inches. * WHERE...Portions of central, south central and southwest Minnesota. * WHEN...From 3 PM this afternoon to midnight CST tonight. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions for the state you are calling from can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. Road conditions can also be found at 511mn.org for Minnesota or 511wi.gov for Wisconsin.

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 afternoon/evening snow

Another batch of snow moves into western Minnesota Sunday afternoon, then spreads eastward by Sunday evening.

NOAA’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from noon Sunday to 6 a.m. on Monday:

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NAM simulated radar noon Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Note that it is still snowing at 6 a.m. Monday in the Twin Cities metro area plus southeastern Minnesota and much of Wisconsin.

NOAA’s HRRR model shows the snow ending in the Twin Cities by 6 a.m. Monday:

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HRRR simulated radar noon Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Slick roads can be expected for the Monday morning commute even if the accumulating snow has ended by daybreak…check forecast updates.

Temperature trends

Most areas have already seen their Saturday high temp. It was 24 degrees around 1 a.m. Saturday in the Twin Cities, and we have fallen through the teens and into the single digits this morning. Parts of the metro area could rebound to about 14 degrees at some point this afternoon. Single-digit daytime highs are expected in much of northern and central Minnesota. Gusty winds will make it feel colder than the air temps.

Sunday highs range from 20s in southwestern Minnesota to single digits in the northeast:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Twin Cities temps will reach the teens by Sunday evening. Metro area temps could be in the lower 20s before sunrise on Monday, followed by falling temps; reaching the mid-teens by Monday afternoon. Twin Cities highs are forecast to be around 3 above zero on Tuesday, followed by mid-teens Wednesday, upper 20s Thursday and lower 20s on Friday.

Tuesday through Thursday look fairly dry in the metro area.

Weather nugget

On this date in 1982: The Twin Cities received 17.2 inches of new snow, with another 2.8 inches on Jan. 23. The two-day total of 20 inches brought the snow depth at MSP airport to 38 inches.

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.