Some Monday flakes; Coldest temps and lowest wind chills Wednesday through Friday

Some people are more energized during sunny weather than cloudy weather. If you’re somewhat “solar-powered” you probably enjoyed our sunny Sunday weather. Clouds will roll back in on Monday.

Snow opportunities

Some areas of light snow could move into southern Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin Monday morning. Snow is then likely to spread across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin Monday afternoon, and periods of snow will continue in many locations Monday evening and into the overnight hours of Monday night.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential snow pattern from 5 a.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday:

Accumulations are expected to be around one inch in many areas by Monday night, but northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin could see some two-inch and higher totals.

Here’s the NWS snow forecast for northwestern Minnesota:

Here’s the NWS snow forecast for northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

Note that some 4 to 6 inch snow totals are possible along portions of the North Shore of Lake Superior. A winter weather advisory covers Lake County and Cook County of northeastern Minnesota from noon Monday to noon on Tuesday. Here are details of that advisory:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Duluth MN 302 PM CST Sun Dec 18 2022 MNZ012-020-021-190915- /O.NEW.KDLH.WW.Y.0037.221219T1800Z-221220T1800Z/ Northern Cook and Lake-Southern Lake-Southern Cook- Including the cities of Isabella, Two Harbors, Silver Bay, and Grand Marais 302 PM CST Sun Dec 18 2022 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM NOON MONDAY TO NOON CST TUESDAY... * WHAT...Snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 3 to 5 inches. * WHERE...Northern Cook and Lake, Southern Lake and Southern Cook Counties. This includes the Tribal Lands of the Grand Portage Reservation. * WHEN...From noon Monday to noon CST Tuesday. * IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. Road conditions can also be found at 511mn.org for Minnesota or 511wi.gov for Wisconsin.

Parts of west-central Wisconsin are expected to tally between one and two inches of snow Monday afternoon through Monday night, with Twin Cities metro area snow totals around one inch.

There is the potential for plowable snow in Minnesota and Wisconsin Wednesday and Wednesday night into early Thursday. Some forecast models bring a swath of several inches of snow across portions of the upper Midwest. Other forecast models track that Wednesday/Wednesday night storm system much farther to the south, with the heaviest snow missing Minnesota and most of Wisconsin. Strong winds develop over the upper Midwest late Wednesday into Thursday as the storm system moves off to our east. Blowing snow and dangerous wind chills are possible Thursday and Friday. Check forecast updates as we get closer to Wednesday and Thursday.

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

Temperature trends

Monday highs will be in the single digits across much of western and north-central Minnesota, with mainly teens elsewhere in Minnesota plus western Wisconsin:

Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area could reach the upper teens. Our average Twin Cities high temp is 28 degrees on Dec. 19.

Wind chill temperatures will remain below zero Monday afternoon in much of western Minnesota and far northern Minnesota, with slightly milder afternoon wind chill temps in the east:

Back to forecast high temperatures, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 10 degrees on Tuesday, then close to 4 degrees on Wednesday and around 2 above on Thursday and Friday.

Very cold wind chills

Very cold wind chills are expected from Wednesday into Saturday.

Here are some minimum wind chill forecasts for eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota:

Here are wind chill details for northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

Here are minimum wind chill forecasts for several Minnesota and western Wisconsin locations:

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.