Weekend weather: Milder temps; brightest day will be Saturday

That pesky low-pressure system that gave us three days of chilly temps and periods of rain and snow is finally moving away.

I think you’ll like our Saturday weather and much of Sunday will be pleasant, with rain chances staying off to the west for much of the day.

Weekend temps and winds

Our average Twin Cities high temp is 54 degrees on April 9. Metro area highs are forecast to reach about 50 degrees Saturday, which will be an improvement over the chilly temps of the past few days.

Saturday highs will range from 40s in northern Minnesota to the lower 50s in the far south:

Saturday afternoon wind gusts will be fairly light in most areas, but gusts could approach 20 mph in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota:

Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 18 knots equal to 20.7 mph.

Back to temperatures, Sunday highs will reach the 50s from central and southern Minnesota into western Wisconsin, with some 40s in northern Minnesota:

Sunday afternoon wind gusts will top 20 mph in much of central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

Best Sunday rain chance in western Minnesota

Saturday looks dry and bright. Rain showers are expected to move into much of western Minnesota Sunday morning, then gradually spread to the east and northeast Sunday afternoon and evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 2 a.m. Sunday to 7 p.m. Sunday:

The Twin Cities metro area could see a few scattered showers late Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening. The precipitation in northwestern Minnesota could mix with snow Sunday afternoon and evening, then change over to all snow later Sunday night.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News network, and you can see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Still plenty of snow up north

Snow lovers will be interested to know that there’s still plenty of snow on the ground in north-central and northeastern Minnesota. Here’s the weekly snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

Most of north-central Minnesota has 8 inches or more of snow on the ground. Northeastern Minnesota has 12 inches or more of snow on the ground, with 18 inches or more of snow cover in portions of eastern Lake County and 24 inches or more of snow cover in much of Cook County.

Programming note

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.