Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

December weather pattern arrives; snow chances Monday into Tuesday

Some snow looks possible Monday into Tuesday

Weather conditions in northwest MInnesota
Weather conditions Friday in northwestern Minnesota and North Dakota
Grand Forks, N.D., National Weather Service office

Our weather pattern has lurched from late September to December in about 24 hours in southern Minnesota.

This week’s wintry storm dumped as much as 11 inches of snow in Roseau.

An icy coating fell in parts of north-central and northeast Minnesota along with lighter snowfall totals.

Now we look ahead to a frigid weekend, and some emerging snowfall chances next week. Highs this weekend across Minnesota range from the teens northwest to the 30s in southern Minnesota.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Expect a few snow flurries this weekend, but no significant accumulation is expected.

Snow chances next week?

It’s early, but forecast models are suggesting a low-pressure system will track through the Ohio Valley next Monday and Tuesday. If that track holds up, it would be close enough to Minnesota to produce some snow, but far enough south to keep the heaviest snow south of Minnesota unless the storm tracks farther northward. (What could possibly go wrong?)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model shows (lighter) snow areas drifting across the Upper Midwest Monday into Tuesday.

NOAA GFS model
NOAA GFS model Monday into Wednesday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

It’s too early to credibly project any snowfall totals now so I won’t be posting any forecast model snowfall maps today. But the notion of cobbling together a snowy ground coating of a couple of inches certainly seems reasonable.

We’ll have to watch this one to see if storm tracks shift further northward over the weekend.

Stay tuned.