Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Our Sunday weather will be pleasantly mild.  Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 40 degrees this time of year. Most of the metro area will reach 40 degrees this afternoon, with a few spots in the metro area creeping slightly above 40.

Sunday highs will range from 40s in southern Minnesota to 20s in portions of northern Minnesota. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few spots in far southwestern Minnesota top 50 degrees at some point this afternoon.

Snow outlook Sunday night and Monday morning

A band of snow is expected to move into west-central Minnesota Sunday evening. It will then spread overnight across central Minnesota and into parts of northwestern and west-central Wisconsin. The snow will linger into Monday morning in portions of east-central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 8 p.m. Sunday to 2 p.m. on Monday:

NOAA’s High-Resolution Rapid-Refresh (HRRR) model shows a similar swath of snow, with slightly different timing:

The Twin Cities metro area will be near the southern edge of the snow band. Here’s the early NWS snow forecast for Sunday night through Monday morning:

The bulk of the metro area can expect less than one inch of snow, with an inch or so possible along the far northern edge of the metro area. The flakes could be mixed with a bit of drizzle or light rain, with patchy freezing drizzle and light freezing rain also possible Monday morning.

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 

Monday’s highs will be mainly in the 30s, with lower 40s possible in southeastern Minnesota:

Some spots in the metro area could touch 40 degrees.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 50 on Tuesday, followed by mid 50s Wednesday, upper 40s Thursday and 50 on Friday.

Snow depths highest in northern Minnesota

With the warmer temps that are in the forecast this week, our snow cover will be shrinking. If you are in the metro area, you might want to get your sledding, cross-country skiing and snowboarding done today and tomorrow.

The latest snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office shows 16 inches or more of snow cover in most of the northern half of Minnesota, with 24 inches or more of snow cover in much of north-central and northeastern Minnesota:

Portions of Cook County in northeastern Minnesota have more than 36 inches of snow on the ground! The map does not include the Saturday/Saturday night snow that fell in portions of northern Minnesota.

Twin Cities metro area snow depths are generally in the 2 to 5-inch range, with a bit more than 6 inches in the far north metro. The Sunday morning snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 3 inches.

Much of far southern Minnesota has little or no snow cover right now.

In the Twin Cities we average 8.2 inches of snow in March. So far this March, MSP airport has tallied 3.3 inches. MSP airport had 4 inches of snow last March and just 1.3 inches of snow in March of 2020. Our last snowy March in the Twin Cities was in 2019, with 10.5 inches at MSP airport.

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 pleasant March weather today, with much milder temps than yesterday. Some areas will see snow Sunday night into early Monday. We have details on all that, plus the warm temps that are in the forecast this week.

A pleasant Sunday; snow in some areas overnight and Monday morning

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