Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Parts of northwestern and central Minnesota have lingering fog this Saturday morning, but visibilities will improve this afternoon.

Mild temperatures are on tap for the weekend.

Saturday highs will be in the 30s across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Twin Cities metro area highs are expected to reach the upper 30s, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 40 somewhere in the metro area. Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 30 degrees this time of year.

Sunday highs will be in the 30s in eastern and southern Minnesota, with mainly 20s in west-central and northwestern Minnesota:

A few spots in far northwestern Minnesota will have Sunday highs in the teens.

Monday highs range from upper teens in far northern Minnesota to 30s in the south: 

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to retreat to the mid 20s on Tuesday, followed by lower 20s Wednesday then upper teens on Thursday and Friday.

Northwestern Minnesota could see a few scattered flurries today. A low pressure system tracks across southern Canada from Saturday evening into Sunday, spinning some periods of light snow over far northern Minnesota. Accumulations are generally expected to be one inch or less, but some spots close to the Canadian border could see around two inches of snow Saturday night into Sunday morning.

A clipper system will bring a shot of snow to much Minnesota and western Wisconsin from Sunday night into Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 9 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday:

The snow will continue in northeastern Minnesota Monday evening.

The highest snow totals from Sunday night through Monday evening will be in northern Minnesota:

Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area could see around one inch of snow, but less than one inch of snow is expected in the south metro.

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

A slow-moving low pressure system is expected to bring significant snow and strong winds to portions of the upper Midwest from Wednesday into Thursday. Parts of South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin could see double-digit snowfall totals from the storm.

Here’s a glimpse at which areas have the best chance of significant snow:

Check forecasts as we get closer to Wednesday. The snow could begin in some areas Tuesday afternoon and evening.

The steady rain on Tuesday degraded our snow cover a bit, but some areas still have substantial snow cover.

In case you want to try sledding or cross-country skiing this weekend, here’s the latest Minnesota snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

The official Twin Cities snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 4 inches right now, with 4 to 8 inches of snow cover across much of the metro area.

Snow depths are 18 inches or higher from northern Pine County into northeastern Minnesota. The light purple shaded areas that cover much of Lake County and Cook County of northeastern Minnesota have between 24 and 36 inches of snow on the ground.

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

We’ll enjoy mild temperatures this weekend. Snow chances stay mainly north Saturday night and Sunday, then many more locations will see periods of snow on Monday. We have details on that, plus a peek at the potential midweek snowstorm.

Mild weekend temps; Update on who will see some snow Sunday and Monday

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