Storms start to move out of Minnesota, continue for western Wisconsin

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We had a mix of rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow in Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday and Saturday night. There may be an icy layer under that snow that you shovel today. 

Updated Minnesota road conditions can be found 

. Wisconsin road conditions can be found 

Parts of Iowa saw tornadoes Saturday afternoon and evening. This tornado video is from Saturday afternoon near Winterset, Iowa:

 there are 7 confirmed fatalities from the tornadoes that touched down in Iowa around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.  Six of the fatalities were in Madison County, which is southwest of Des Moines, with the other fatality occurring in Lucas County, which is southeast of Des Moines. 

The NWS Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday that covered much of Iowa until 8 p.m. Saturday:

Moist, unstable air was over the area Saturday afternoon. There was also a nearby low pressure center and an upper level disturbance was moving over Iowa.

Here’s a map of tornado reports (red) from Saturday:

There can be multiple reports of the same tornado over a period of time. Here are details of the tornado report near Winterset, Iowa at 4:35 p.m. Saturday:

National Weather Service storm survey teams will be out today to gather more info on Saturday’s tornadoes:

Snow reports from Saturday and overnight are still coming in.  The official Twin Cities total (measured at MSP airport) was 

Here are some other snow totals for Saturday  and the overnight hours of Saturday night:

 inches Rosemount and Mendota Heights (Dakota County)

Many additional snow reports are posted by the NWS 

.  You can zoom in for more details of the snow reports at the linked site, and you can click on or hover over any snow report to get info on the exact location and time of snow measurement.

Northwestern and north-central Minnesota could see some periods of light snow showers today. A few stray flurries are possible elsewhere in Minnesota.

A low pressure system will spread snow across Iowa, northern Illinois and far southern Wisconsin Sunday night and Monday morning. The far southeastern corner of Minnesota could get clipped by light snow showers late Sunday night and early Monday morning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 8 p.m. Sunday to noon on Monday:

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 

Sunday highs will be mainly in the 20s in western Minnesota. Many spots in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin will top 30 degrees.

Monday highs will be mainly in the 20s, with some lower 30s in far southeastern Minnesota:

We could touch 30 degrees Monday in the Twin Cities, which would be 7 degrees shy of our average March 7 high. Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s on Tuesday, followed by around 30 Wednesday then mid 20s Thursday and upper teens on Friday.

One year ago today our Twin Cities high temp was 48 degrees. MSP airport topped out at 62 degrees the next day, followed by 58 degrees on March 8 and 62 degrees on March 9!

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.

Ron Trenda

Author

We have additional snow totals from overnight, plus information on the deadly tornadoes that hit parts of Iowa Saturday afternoon and evening. The week ahead looks fairly cool.

More snow totals are in; Cool temps most of the week

Go Deeper.

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