Chance of a rain-snow shower late Monday; midweek warmup

Sunday was a gray day across much of Minnesota, but much of south-central Minnesota and parts of southwestern Minnesota had plenty of sunshine.

Here’s the satellite loop from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday:

Temperature trends

The Sunday high temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 37 degrees. That was 4 degrees warmer than the average Dec. 3 high temp in the Twin Cities.

Much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin had Sunday highs in the 30s, but some locations in southern Minnesota topped 40 degrees.

Monday high temps will be mainly in the 30s:

A few spots in the southwest could top 40 degrees Monday afternoon.

Tuesday highs will be in the 30s in most areas:

A shift in the upper-air pattern will help usher in warmer temps Wednesday into Thursday. Wednesday highs will reach the 50s in much of west-central and southwestern Minnesota and up in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the mid to upper 40s on Wednesday, followed by upper 40s Thursday and Friday.

Rain-snow shower chance

A low-pressure system is expected to move from South Dakota through southwestern Minnesota and into Iowa as we go through Monday afternoon and into Monday evening. That forecast track could spread scattered rain showers and light snow showers across roughly the southern half of Minnesota and into Wisconsin by late Monday afternoon into Monday evening/night.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from noon Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday:

Northeastern Minnesota could also see a few light snow showers or flurries Monday afternoon and Monday evening.

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

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. each Saturday and Sunday