Milder temps Saturday afternoon; far north flakes possible Saturday night
Updated snow cover map
This will be a much milder Saturday than last Saturday!
Our Twin Cities high temp was just 7 degrees above zero last Saturday. That’s well below our average Twin Cities high of 25 degrees for this point in winter. Many spots in the metro area will have afternoon highs of at least 30 degrees today.
Much of western and southern Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin will also see highs in the 30s:
Highs in the 20s are expected elsewhere.
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Southerly breezes will give us afternoon wind chill temps in the teens in many areas, with single-digit wind chill temps in northeastern Minnesota:
Wind chill temps will be a bit milder by mid-afternoon.
Plenty of snow cover for winter fun
If your weekend plans include sledding, cross-country skiing or snowboarding, you’re in luck; the weekly snow depth map from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shows plenty of snow cover across most of Minnesota.
The official Twin Cities snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 10 inches right now. Some spots in southern Scott County, in the southwest metro area, have more than 15 inches of snow cover.
The purple shaded areas from Pine County through northeastern Minnesota have snow depths of 18 inches or more. The light-purple shaded areas in northeastern Minnesota have 24 to 30 inches of snow cover.
Far north flakes possible Saturday night
Parts of far northern Minnesota could see some light snow showers at times Saturday evening and overnight Saturday night.
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 a.m. Sunday:
The northwestern corner of Wisconsin could also see a few passing flakes overnight.
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.
Update
An updated Updraft blog will be posted around 10:20 a.m. Saturday. It will include a look at Sunday and the week ahead.
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.