Wintry mix spreads across 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

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.

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

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:

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

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:

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

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:

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News 

, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News 

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:

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:

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

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:

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.

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.

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.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

We’ll see two more batches of snow this weekend. We have the updated snow forecast, plus a look at the week ahead.

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

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox