Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend weather: Mild temps, southerly breezes, dry in most areas

Mid to upper 30s in most areas

Minnesota’s weekend weather will be very tame for mid-January. We’ll have a high-pressure system to our southeast and a low-pressure system to the west, which will give us southerly breezes and mild temps.

It looks like a dry weekend in most areas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the pressure pattern and the potential precipitation pattern from 6 a.m. Saturday through 5 p.m. Sunday:

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Simulated radar from 6 a.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Weekend temps

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is coldest from Jan. 10 through Jan. 24, at 23 degrees. Metro area highs will reach the lower 30s to mid-30s on Saturday, followed by upper 30s to near 40 degrees on Sunday.

Highs in the 30s are on tap for much of Minnesota on Saturday, with mainly upper 20s in the northern third of Minnesota:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Saturday afternoon wind chill temps will be in the teens to lower 20s above zero:

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Saturday noon forecast wind chill temps
National Weather Service

Sunday high temps will reach the mid to upper 30s in most areas:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

A few spots in the Twin Cities metro area and southeastern Minnesota could briefly touch 40 degrees Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon wind chill temps will be mainly in the mid to upper 20s above zero:

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Sunday noon forecast wind chill temps
National Weather Service

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.

Great conditions for fun in the snow

If sledding, snowboarding or cross-country skiing are in your weekend plans, you’ll be happy to know that there’s plenty of snow on the ground across most of Minnesota:

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Minnesota snow depth
Minnesota State Climatology Office

The official Twin Cities snow depth is 12 inches right now, but some spots in the metro area have snow depths of 15 inches or higher.

The purple areas on the snow depth map indicate 18 inches or more of snow cover from northern Isanti County and northern Chisago County up through northeastern Minnesota.

The light purple areas in Pine County and portions of northeastern Minnesota have 24 inches or more of snow on the ground.

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.