Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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If your weekend plans include cross-country skiing, sledding or snowboarding, there’s ample snow on the ground right now. 

The latest snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology office shows 12 inches or more of snow in roughly the northern half of Minnesota, with 2 feet or more of snow cover in much of north-central and northeastern Minnesota:

The map was compiled Thursday morning, so it does not include the inch or 2 of snow that fell in southern Minnesota Thursday afternoon and evening. The official Twin Cities snow depth, measured at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, is 8 inches right now.

Low temps early Saturday morning will be in the single digits below zero in much of northern and central Minnesota, with single digits above zero in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota.

Temps recover nicely Saturday afternoon, with highs in the 30s in roughly the southern half of Minnesota and 20s in the north:

Some spots around Duluth will touch 30. Twin Cities metro-area highs will be in the low to mid-30s. Our average Twin Cities high is 33 this time of year.

Saturday afternoon wind gusts could top 25 mph at times.

Sunday highs will be mainly in the 20s, with a few lower 30s in southwestern Minnesota and a few teens in the far north:

A few spots in the metro area could touch 30 degrees.

Northwestern Minnesota has a chance of light snow showers by late Saturday afternoon, then the northern third of Minnesota will have a chance of scattered snow showers Saturday evening and overnight

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

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 

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid-30s Monday, followed by highs in the lower 30s the rest of the coming week. We could see some snow showers Tuesday night, and one forecast model brings us a rain/snow mix next Friday evening.  

The 1.5 inches of snow at the MSP Airport on Thursday brought our Twin Cities season snowfall total to 43.5 inches. That’s 5.1 inches above normal for this point in our snow season, which begins in the fall.

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

Saturday will bring us warmer temps, but it’ll be breezy by afternoon. Temps and winds retreat a bit on Sunday. 

Warmer this weekend; breezy on Saturday

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