Mild Wednesday, cooler Thursday; Saturday storm set to bring rain, snow
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After some light snow showers early Wednesday, Minnesota should see some sunshine break out across central Minnesota in the afternoon. Temperatures will again be relatively mild: 30s south and 20s north.
A Saturday storm looks to be mostly rain for the Twin Cities right now, but it does appear increasingly likely that a narrow axis of heavy snow will fall just on the cold side of this system from west-central through northeastern Minnesota.
Clouds to sun Wednesday
There are just a few scattered light snow-rain showers early Wednesday exiting Minnesota. Clouds will linger into midday and break up this afternoon across central Minnesota with more sunshine in the southwest and northern parts of the state.
Expect another relatively mild day Wednesday, with 30s south, 20s north but not quite 40 in the Twin Cities.
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Behind Wednesday’s clipper system, some colder air will slide in for the next 36 hours or so. Expect lows Wednesday night to drop into the teens in the south and subzero across northern Minnesota.
High temperatures Thursday will be the coolest of the week with just 20s in the south and teens north. We will have brighter skies again however.
Already, we’ll be warming back above freezing in southern Minnesota Friday as the next, much larger storm system approaches. That storm system is still in the Pacific Ocean, just west of California.
There will be ample water content available as the storm moves across the Rockies and draws in Gulf of Mexico moisture northward Friday. It will also be drawing considerably warmer air ahead of it.
In fact, surface temperatures warm to around 40 Saturday in the Twin Cities and even warmer in the southeastern portions of Minnesota.
Just as important, temperatures aloft will be even warmer. If we go up about 4,000 feet above the ground midday Saturday, temperatures will also be around 40 degrees or warmer.
Most computer models have a deep (8,000 feet) lower level layer of warmth, which will make our precipitation from the Twin Cities and southeast mainly in the form of rain during the day Saturday.
It does appear increasingly likely that there will be a narrow axis of heavy snow just on the cold side of this system in west central through northern Minnesota. Forecasting its exact position and amounts is still treacherous and early at this point.
Here’s a snapshot of potential snowfall from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s computer model:
