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

Snow spreads from northwestern Minnesota Thursday morning to the Twin Cities and eastern Minnesota by midafternoon. Temperatures warm into Thursday evening, moving from mostly single digits and teens to the 30s for the southern half of Minnesota. 

Temperatures drop through the day Friday. By early Saturday morning, most of Minnesota will be back below zero.

A vigorous clipper is bringing not just snow but big swings in temperatures over the next 24 to 36 hours. First the snow. Snow arrives in the northwest by late morning and by about 3 p.m. in the Twin Cities and northeastern Minnesota.

We’ll have a few hours of snow adding up to about 1 inch in the Twin Cities. Some northern suburbs could see up to 2 inches. The most snow will fall in northeastern Minnesota along the North Shore. 

We do have a narrow, possible window of some freezing drizzle as the snow ends between about 5 and 7 p.m. before temperatures rise above freezing. It does not appear to be a significant chance, but it’s there. 

As temperatures warm above freezing, we’ll likely have a few plain old light rain showers.

Temperatures will continue to rise into the evening and we’ll see our high temperature around 9 to 10 p.m., potentially in the upper 30s in southern Minnesota.

We’ll start early Friday near or above freezing but then temperatures will really drop through the day as gusty northwest winds blow in colder air for the first half of the weekend. We’ll also have some scattered flurries and light snow showers Friday morning as the colder sweeps in.

By early Saturday morning, most of Minnesota will be back below zero. 

Saturday will bring abundant sunshine, but it will be chilly. Highs will stay in the teens and single digits.

By Sunday and Monday we’ll see highs surpass 20 degrees again and much of next week looks mild again with highs by Tuesday afternoon back above freezing.

In southern California, they’re talking about record high temperatures potentially Thursday. Rare February heat advisories are in affect for the Los Angeles area as well Thursday.

Not quite as far to our southwest, but still bizarre is the potential for fire danger in parts of Nebraska and South Dakota due to the dry conditions and wind.

While we’ve definitely been seeing winter, areas of Nebraska have been much more spring like with warm temperatures and dry winds. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Sven Sundgaard

Author

Temperatures warm into Thursday evening, moving from mostly single digits and teens to the 30s for the southern half of Minnesota. By early Saturday morning, most of Minnesota will be back below zero.

Despite a cooler start early Thursday, temperatures will rapidly warm late today as a clipper system brings not just snow but also above freezing temperatures by evening with the possibility of light rain overnight Thursday night. It will be another windy day as well.

Snow Thursday afternoon; temps above freezing overnight

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox