Winter storm warnings in northern Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

I have info on Minnesota snow depths, but I’ll first give you an update on the freezing fog that continues in some areas Saturday morning

A nearby high pressure system kept our winds light overnight, allowing areas of freezing fog and dense fog to develop and then linger into Saturday morning. A dense fog advisory continues until noon this Saturday in west-central, southwestern and south-central Minnesota:

Patchy areas of freezing fog and dense fog are possible elsewhere in Minnesota into late Saturday morning.

Some areas of freezing fog could also develop Saturday night and then linger into early Sunday.

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

A nearby high pressure system will keep our winds light today and tonight. That high pressure system will slide southeastward on Sunday, shifting our winds to the southwest. Most areas won’t see accumulating snow this weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the pressure pattern and the potential precipitation pattern from noon  Saturday through 5 p.m. Sunday:

Our average Twin Cities high temp is 24 degrees on Jan. 7. We’re expecting highs in the upper teens across much of the metro area this Saturday. Many parts of Minnesota will have Saturday highs in the teens, with lower 20s expected in parts of northeastern Minnesota, far southeastern Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin.

Sunday highs reach the 20s in most locations:

Sunday afternoon wind chill temps will be in the single-digits and teens above zero:

Back to high temps, Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid 20s on Monday, followed by upper 20s Tuesday, mid 30s Wednesday, lower 30s Thursday and upper 20s on Friday. The Twin Cities metro area could see some light snow showers late Wednesday and on Thursday. 

There’s plenty of snow cover out there. This will be a good weekend for sledding, cross-country skiing and snowboarding in most parts of Minnesota.

Here’s the latest Minnesota snow depth map, from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

The official Twin Cities snow depth is 15 inches, but some spots in the metro area have 18 inches or more of snow on the ground. Much of Lake County and Cook County of northeastern Minnesota have between 24 and 36 inches of snow cover. The lowest snow depths are in far southeastern Minnesota, where some spots have less than four inches on the ground.

average snow total for an entire snow season in the Twin Cities is 51.2 inches. We’re on a pace to end up well above that total this snow season, since we’ve already tallied 48.3 inches of snow at MSP airport.

The last Twin Cities snow season with more than 70 inches of snow was four years ago, in 2018-2019:

That snow season started out a bit slower than normal, then we set a new Twin Cities February snowfall total of 39 inches!

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

Areas of fog and freezing fog developed overnight and lingered into the morning. We have an update on that, plus a look at Sunday and the week ahead. We also peek at Minnesota snow cover and the past five snow seasons in the Twin Cities.

A cool weekend, then temps rebound next week; Thursday flake chance

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox