Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Heavy snow targeting northern Minnesota

Double-digit April snowfall totals possible

Snowy conditions up north
Snowy conditions up north.
Duluth National Weather Service

Our slow-moving storm has arrived with rain in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota. Up north, heavy wet snow is piling up.

I’ve already seen reports of 6 to 8 inches in northern Minnesota around Lake Itasca.

Waubun, in Mahnomen County, is reporting 8 inches of new snow.

Our low-pressure system stalls over Minnesota through Thursday. Expect additional waves of snow up north and rain mixing with snow in southern Minnesota Wednesday into Thursday. Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories cover much of northern Minnesota.

Winter storm warnings and advisories
Winter storm warnings and advisories.
Duluth National Weather Service

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model shows the low swirling across the Upper Midwest into Thursday. Note the pockets of heavy snowfall. It’s possible the Twin Cities could get another snowy coating by Thursday morning.

NOAA GFS model
NOAA GFS model through 1 p.m. Thursday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

Locally heavy snowfall totals

I’m leaning heavier on snowfall totals than some of the current forecasts up north.

With 6 to 8 inches already on the ground in parts of northern Minnesota the forecast model notions of double-digit snowfall totals I’m seeing across parts of northern Minnesota by later Wednesday seem entirely possible.

NOAA’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System 3 km model is among this cranking out significant double-digit snowfall across parts of northern Minnesota by Thursday.

NOAA NAM 3 km model
NOAA NAM 3 km model snowfall output by Thursday.
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

We could again see a snowy coating in the Twin Cities by Thursday morning.

The weekend looks sunnier and milder. But our spring of 2022 is reluctant across most of Minnesota this year.