Air quality alerts spread across Minnesota as fires rage, sending smoke south

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Twin Cities metro area highs are expected to reach the upper 20s Saturday. Our average Feb. 19 high temp in the Twin Cities is 30 degrees. 

Many areas will have Saturday highs in the 20s, with some 30s in southwestern Minnesota and teens in far northeastern Minnesota:

Saturday wind gusts will be over 20 mph in western Minnesota, with lighter winds to the east:

Forecast gusts are in knots, with 13 knots equal to 15 mph.

Sunday will be the warmest day of the weekend in most areas, with highs reaching the 30s in central Minnesota and lower 40s in the south:

Sunday wind gusts will be over 20 mph in western Minnesota, with gusts in the teens to the east.

Storm watch set for NW Minn. overnight into Friday

Northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota could see blizzard conditions late Thursday night into Friday as a low-pressure system spreads snow and strong winds. A winter storm watch (shaded blue) runs from midnight Thursday to 6 p.m. Friday:

Here are details of the winter storm watch in northwestern Minnesota:

Here are projected snow amounts and wind gusts for Friday:

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 

. Minnesota road conditions can be found 

Northern Minnesota and parts of central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin could see some periods of snow Saturday night into early Sunday morning.

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

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 have fairly quiet weekend weather, with our warmest temps on Sunday. Northern Minnesota could see a few hours of snow. We have your weekend forecast details. 

Weekend weather: 20s, 30s Saturday; 40s Sunday in southern Minnesota

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