Milder, snow showers, windy Friday

There are a lot of colors on the maps across Minnesota today as a clipper system brings a lot of wind along with snow showers and white-out conditions in northwest Minnesota.

The more significant accumulations will be in northern Minnesota Friday where several inches will fall in northeast Minnesota.

The combination of snow and wind will create treacherous, blizzard conditions in the northwest part of the state. A blizzard warning is posted through 6 p.m. in the northwest counties of the state. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph are possible there!

Farther south, in the Twin Cities and most of southern Minnesota, we’ll see some snow showers but little accumulation (a trace to only a half-inch at the most), but we won’t avoid the wind.

This system will have an incredibly tight pressure gradient that will create sustained wind speeds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts of 45 to 50 mph in eastern and southern Minnesota.

Highs Friday afternoon will be quite mild, though you won’t notice as much with the winds. Expect highs in the 30s in the south and 20s in the north. We’ll cool off a little Saturday before warming up again Sunday.

Next week still looks active as a prolonged and more significant snowfall develops Monday into Wednesday.