Gusty Saturday winds; snow totals highest in northern Minnesota

Northern Minnesota and parts of central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin will have accumulating snow Saturday. The highest snow totals will be in northern Minnesota.

Here are forecast snow amounts for northwestern Minnesota:

The area within the hatched lines in northwestern Minnesota has a winter weather advisory.

Here are details of the advisory:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Grand Forks ND 1002 AM CST Sat Feb 5 2022 MNZ005-006-008-009-013>017-060000- /O.CON.KFGF.WW.Y.0013.000000T0000Z-220206T0000Z/ Roseau-Lake Of The Woods-East Marshall-North Beltrami-Pennington- Red Lake-East Polk-North Clearwater-South Beltrami- Including the cities of Roseau, Warroad, Greenbush, Baudette, Newfolden, Middle River, Grygla, Red Lake, Redby, Ponemah, Thief River Falls, Red Lake Falls, Fosston, Fertile, McIntosh, Erskine, Bagley, Clearbrook, and Bemidji 1002 AM CST Sat Feb 5 2022 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Snow, with additional accumulations of 1 to 3 inches. Visibilities will be less than a half mile at times, mainly from falling snow. * WHERE...Portions of north central and northwest Minnesota. * WHEN...Until 6 PM CST this evening. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions for North Dakota can be found at dot.nd.gov/travel and for Minnesota at 511mn.org, or by calling 5 1 1 in either state.

North-central and northeastern Minnesota will see several inches of snow:

A winter weather advisory continues until 6 p.m. for north-central Minnesota and parts of the northeast, with the advisory running until 9 p.m. in Lake and Cook counties in the Arrowhead region.

Here are details of the advisory in Cook and Lake counties:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Duluth MN 235 AM CST Sat Feb 5 2022 MNZ012-020-021-052200- /O.CON.KDLH.WW.Y.0005.220205T1400Z-220206T0300Z/ Northern Cook and Lake-Southern Lake-Southern Cook- Including the cities of Isabella, Two Harbors, Silver Bay, and Grand Marais 235 AM CST Sat Feb 5 2022 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM THIS MORNING TO 9 PM CST THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches. * WHERE...Northern Cook and Lake, Southern Cook and Southern Lake Counties. This includes the Tribal Lands of the Grand Portage Reservation. * WHEN...From 8 AM this morning to 9 PM CST this evening. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. Road conditions can also be found at 511mn.org for Minnesota or 511wi.gov for Wisconsin.

Most of the significant accumulating snow stays to the north Saturday, but occasional light snow showers are possible in the Twin Cities metro area, southern Minnesota and west-central 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.

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

Sunday snow chances?

A few light snow showers are possible on Sunday, especially during the morning hours. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 2 a.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Sunday:

NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model shows just a few very scattered snow showers on Sunday:

We’ll see if the afternoon runs of these models are more consistent.

Temperature trends

Saturday highs will range from the 30s in southwestern Minnesota to teens in the far north. Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area may see highs in the mid 20s late Saturday afternoon or early Saturday evening. Wind gusts of 30 mph are possible at times.

Sunday highs will be mainly in the teens:

Western Wisconsin will see some lower 20s Sunday afternoon, and parts of northwestern Minnesota may see Sunday highs in the single-digits.

Sunday wind gusts will be in the 15-20 mph range in most areas:

Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 15 knots equal to 17.3 mph.

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities highs are projected to reach the upper 20s on Monday, then lower 40s on Tuesday. Our metro area highs then retreat to the mid 30s Wednesday, followed by lower 30s Thursday and Friday.

Boston has seen more snow than the Twin Cities

The Twin Cities season snowfall total, measured at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, is currently 33.4 inches. Boston has us beat, with a season total of 37.3 inches so far. Almost 2 feet of their total is from that nor’easter last weekend. Here are some details from that storm:

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.