Another wintry storm Friday

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Kids with sleds and cross-country skiers are loving this snow. People who are shoveling twice a day are probably hoping for a break from this snow-globe weather pattern.

Periods of light snow continue today in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The light snow tapers to scattered flurries in most of Minnesota by late Saturday afternoon, with periods of light snow continuing Saturday evening in parts of western Wisconsin. 

The areas of snow are rotating around a low pressure system that’s sitting just northeast of Lake Superior. That low will meander slowly away later today. A winter weather advisory continues until noon today in west-central through south-central Minnesota due to light snow and blowing snow plus reduced visibilities:

Here are details of the winter weather advisory:

One inch or less of snow is expected in most of Minnesota today, including the Twin Cities metro area. Northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin could see one to two inches of additional snow today. A winter weather advisory continues until 6 p.m. today from Pine County up through much of northeastern Minnesota and into far northwestern Wisconsin:

 Here are details of that winter weather advisory:

You can find updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the Minnesota Public Radio News 

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 28 degrees on Dec. 17. We’ll have metro area highs in the lower 20s Saturday. Western Minnesota will have Saturday highs in the teens, with mainly 20s in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Below-zero wind chills are expected Saturday afternoon in western Minnesota, with wind chills slightly above zero in the east.

Sunday highs will be in the teens in many areas, with single-digit highs in far western Minnesota:

Sunday afternoon wind chill temps will be below zero in many areas, but slightly above zero from the Twin Cities into southeastern Minnesota:

Back to forecast high temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be in the mid-teens on Monday, followed by lower teens Tuesday then around 8 on Wednesday and around 4 above zero Thursday and Friday.

Some scattered light snow showers could move into western Minnesota Monday morning, then spread to cover much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Monday afternoon and evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential snow pattern from 6 a.m. Monday to 9 p.m. Monday:

Another batch of snow is possible Wednesday and Wednesday night, and some forecast models give us several inches of snow during that period. Check back for updates in the coming days.

The same low pressure system has been dropping periods of snow on Minnesota and Wisconsin since Tuesday.

We have a new highest storm total, with 30.5 inches reported 6 miles northeast of Rice Lake in northeastern Minnesota:

The note for that snow tally says that the measurement location is on a terrain ridge. That would enhance storm snowfall totals.

You can check northeastern Minnesota snowfall totals 

. A Twin Cities centered map of Minnesota and western Wisconsin snow reports can be found 

Set the slider at the top of the linked map pages to “72 hours” to get the most complete storm totals. You can pan and zoom the map at the linked site to get snow totals plus the time and location of the snow measurement.

Our average Twin Cities temperature (average of all the daily high temps and low temps) was 1.3 degrees warmer than normal over the first 16 days of December. Much colder weather is expected over the next 7 to 10 days, so we’ll end up with a colder than normal December. April was our last colder than normal month in the Twin Cities.

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.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

Minnesota and Wisconsin will see periods of light snow again today, then Sunday looks flake-free. We have details on our weekend weather and the plunging temps that are in the forecast this coming week.

Periods of light snow Saturday; colder Sunday and through the coming week

Go Deeper.

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