Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

I’ll dive into our weekend forecast details after this update on the Thursday snow hitting northwestern Minnesota.

Portions of far northwestern Minnesota are seeing snow or a rain-snow mix at midday Thursday. The snow area will expand a bit with several inches of accumulation by late Thursday night in parts of northwestern Minnesota and across much of North Dakota.

Winter weather advisories continue through 7 a.m. Friday for portions of northwestern Minnesota with winter storm warnings in much of North Dakota:

Here are details of the winter weather advisory in northwestern Minnesota:

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News 

MPR News display of National Weather Service radar

Periods of snow are possible Saturday afternoon and evening across southern Minnesota, the Twin Cities metro area and parts of Wisconsin. The snow could begin Saturday morning in far southwestern Minnesota.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from noon Saturday to 7 p.m. Saturday:

Periods of snow will continue into Saturday evening in the same areas that see Saturday afternoon snowfall.

Snow accumulation amounts of 1 inch or more are possible in southwestern and south-central Minnesota, with a coating to less than 1 inch in the Twin Cities metro area. Forecast snow amounts will be fine-tuned before Saturday. 

This is the time of year that we can see  snow accumulations melt fairly quickly. Check forecast updates

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 52 degrees on Oct. 28. Saturday highs in the metro area and much of Minnesota will be in the 30s:

Far northwestern Minnesota could see highs in the 20s.

Sunday highs temps will be in the 20s across much of northern Minnesota, with 30s elsewhere:

This weekend will feel more like late November than late October.

 report released Thursday shows little change in drought conditions across Minnesota:

The rainfall cutoff for the drought map was 7 a.m. Tuesday, and several areas have seen substantial rainfall since then.  

Here is the rainfall map from 7 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday:

Here is the rainfall map from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Thursday:

Next week’s drought report will include the rainfall that we’ve seen since 7 a.m. Tuesday.

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Ron Trenda

Author

There are some flakes in our Saturday forecast and the entire weekend will be cold. We have the forecast details, plus an update on Thursday snow in northwestern Minnesota.

Weekend weather: Cold; flakes at times Saturday afternoon and evening

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox