Another wintry storm Friday

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Our next winter storm comes at a bad time for holiday travel. This major winter storm features drier, fluffy snow that will be lofted airborne easily as winds pick up Thursday and Friday.

Travel conditions will deteriorate as snow moves in Wednesday, and then the winds will kick in blizzard conditions as we move into Thursday and Friday. 

Bitter cold wind chills will be life-threatening for anyone caught outside Thursday into Saturday. This is a serious situation and travel will be difficult to impossible from Wednesday afternoon through Friday across most of our region.

 are posted for most of Minnesota starting Wednesday. 

 are posted for southwest Minnesota Thursday and Friday.

The low-pressure storm will track south of Minnesota between Wednesday and Friday. Snow will begin in western Minnesota early Wednesday morning and spread east across the state. 

We may see some snow in the Twin Cities before noon, but the bulk of the snow will fall Wednesday afternoon into early Thursday morning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System model below captures the essence between noon Wednesday and 6 p.m. Friday:

Northwestern Minnesota will see the least snow with most areas getting between 1 and 3 inches. A band of 3 to 8 inches is likely from Brainerd to the Iron Range and Ely. 

Snowfall confidence is lower than usual with this storm. There are some models that bring less snow to the Twin Cities, or like 3 to 6 inches. Overall a band of 4 to 8 inches looks most likely for central Minnesota and the Twin Cities. Higher totals may blanket the North Shore and Wisconsin.

Here’s NOAA’s latest snowfall projection:

The big story with this system is the wind that will whip fluffy snow into blizzard conditions in open areas. Wind gusts to near 50 mph are possible Thursday through Friday night.

Wind chills of minus 30 and into the minus 40s are likely Thursday and Friday nights.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

A complex mosaic of warnings goes into effect starting Wednesday. Snow, wind, and subzero wind chills will cause dangerous travel conditions Wednesday through Friday.

Bitter cold, high winds, snow set to mess with holiday travel

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