Pesky clouds in many areas; fog redevelops Saturday night; Warmer Monday
Plenty of snow cover in most of Minnesota
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We had a lot of cloud cover on Friday, and our Saturday is starting out mostly cloudy as well.
Parts of Minnesota and western Wisconsin have lingering fog Saturday morning, but that fog is expected to thin out Saturday afternoon. Fog will redevelop in many areas Saturday night and linger into Sunday morning. Some spots could see some patchy freezing drizzle at times.
Many of us would like to see sunshine, but mostly cloudy skies are on tap for much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin this weekend. Western Minnesota is expected to see the most breaks in the cloud cover, but other parts of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin could see an occasional glimpse of sun or some thinning of the cloud deck at times.
Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will get through the weekend without measurable snow, but a passing flurry is possible.
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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.
Snow stays south
A low pressure system will spread snow across southern and eastern Iowa and into Illinois and far southern Wisconsin from Saturday evening into Sunday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 5 p.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Sunday:
Temperature trends
Saturday highs will be in the 20s across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Highs in the upper 20s are likely across much of the Twin Cities metro area. The average Twin Cities high temp is 23 degrees this time of year.
Sunday highs will be mainly in the 20s, with some teens in parts of northwestern and west-central Minnesota:
Monday highs will be around 30 degrees in the metro area and much of southern Minnesota, with mainly upper 20s elsewhere:
Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 20s on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by lower 20s Thursday, around 20 on Friday. Twin Cities highs are expected to be below normal next weekend.
Below normal temps may linger from next weekend into the following week, according to the latest temperature outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center:
Snow depth update
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:
The official Twin Cities snow depth is 11 inches right now, but some spots in the north metro 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 Carlton County up through northeastern Minnesota.
The light purple areas (including much of Lake County and Cook County of northeastern Minnesota) have 24 inches or more of snow on the ground.
Some spots in far southern Minnesota have between 4 and 8 inches of snow cover.
You can get info on the groomed trails in Minnesota State Parks here.
Weather nugget
On this date in 1982, Twin Cities residents were digging out from a snowstorm that began on Jan. 20 and ended on Jan. 21, with a storm total of 17.4 inches. Another storm dumped 20 inches of snow on the Twin Cities Jan. 22 into Jan. 23 of 1982. So…the Twin Cities saw 37.4 inches of snow in that four-day period!
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.
