Mild temps linger; rain Monday, snow into Tuesday
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It doesn’t feel much like January.
Our Sunday highs will be well into the 30s across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 40 somewhere in southern Minnesota Sunday afternoon.
Twin Cities metro area highs are forecast to reach the upper 30s Sunday afternoon. That would be a typical Twin Cities high temp in early March. Our average Twin Cities high on Jan. 15 is 23 degrees.
Temperature trends
High temps will be in the 30s in most locations tomorrow, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:
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Far northwestern Minnesota will top out in the upper 20s.
Tuesday highs will range from upper teens in far northwestern Minnesota to 30s in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin:
Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid to upper 30s on Monday, followed by mid-30s Tuesday then lower 30s Wednesday and Thursday and upper 20s on Friday. Highs in the mid to upper 20s are expected next weekend.
Many areas could see near-normal temps next Sunday and into the following week. The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for near-normal temps in Minnesota and western Wisconsin from Jan. 22 through Jan. 28:
Rain then snow Monday into Tuesday
A low-pressure system will spread precipitation across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin from late Sunday night through Monday. The precipitation will begin as mainly rain to the southeast and mainly snow to the west and northwest, with a rain/snow mix in between.
The precipitation lingers into Monday night and Tuesday, changing to mainly snow in the areas that initially saw rain.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Sunday night through Tuesday afternoon:
The Twin Cities metro area will see extended periods of rain on Monday, then a mix of rain and snow Monday evening, turning to all snow later Monday night and continuing as light snow into Tuesday. Metro area snow totals are expected to be around 1 inch or less.
There could be some 2 to 3 inch snow totals Monday into Tuesday from parts of southwestern Minnesota through much of central, north-central and northeastern Minnesota into northwestern Wisconsin.
Changes in the track of the low-pressure system and the temperature profile within the system will alter snow amounts, so check forecast updates.
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 Sunday plans, you’ll be happy to know that there’s plenty of snow on the ground in most of Minnesota:
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 snow cover may have gone down slightly since the map was created on Thursday, but 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.
Some spots in far southeastern Minnesota have 2 inches or less of snow cover.
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.
