Cold start to the week, then temps warm up; 70s possible next weekend

It definitely felt more like November than mid-October on Sunday. We had gusty winds and plenty of cloud cover, with afternoon temps in the 40s. Parts of far northern Minnesota stayed in the 30s all afternoon. If you’re hoping for mild temps, you’ll have to be patient.

Temperature trends

Many areas will have low temps in the 20s Monday morning, followed by afternoon highs in the 30s:

Those are very cold high temps; our average Oct. 17 high is 58 degrees in the Twin Cities.

Monday afternoon wind gusts will be in the 22 to 28 mph range in most locations:

Forecast gusts are in knots, with 22 knots equal to 25.3 mph. Wind gusts could top 30 mph at times near Lake Superior.

Back to temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be in the lower 40s on Tuesday and around 50 Wednesday, followed by mid 50s Thursday and mid 60s on Friday.

A couple of forecast models show Twin Cities highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s next weekend. Above-normal temps may then linger into the start of the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a strong tendency for above-normal temperatures from Oct. 22 through Oct. 26:

Rain/snow chances

Parts of northeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin will see snow showers or a mix of rain showers and snow showers Sunday evening. There’s a chance of scattered snow showers in those same areas on Monday. A stray flurry is possible in the Twin Cities.

You can check the MPR News interactive radar display here. I should mention that the Twin Cities National Weather Service radar, which is located in Chanhassen, is out of service for a few days:

Heavy snow Sunday night/Monday in parts of Wisc. and Mich.

Cold air moving over the warmer waters of Lake Superior will result in lake-enhanced snow Sunday evening into Monday in parts of north-central Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Here are forecast snow amounts for northern Wisconsin:

Here are the forecast snow amounts Sunday evening into early Tuesday for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan:

Winter storm warnings begin Sunday evening and continue through Monday in the areas that are expected to see the heavy snow and strong winds:

Updates on the wintry weather can be found at the Duluth NWS site and the Marquette, MI NWS site.

Fall color update

Recent strong winds have taken a lot of leaves off of our trees, but there are still some areas of great fall color in portions of Minnesota, including the Twin Cities metro area.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fall color report for Minnesota State Parks and Trails looks like this:

When you look at fall color maps, keep in mind that all deciduous trees are included, not just maples.

The Wisconsin fall color report can be found here.

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. Saturday and Sunday.