No big storms this week; update on Saturday winds and snow totals

We don’t have much weather drama this Sunday. Winds will be much lower than they were on Saturday and measurable snow isn’t expected today in Minnesota or western Wisconsin. A few spots could see a passing snow flurry.

Weekend winds and snow

Now that yesterday’s snow and gusty winds are behind us, let’s do a recap.

The peak Saturday wind gust at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 39 mph. The NWS posted a list of some much higher gusts from elsewhere in Minnesota:

The 59 mph wind gust at Holloway, in Swift County of western Minnesota, occurred Saturday morning.

I found some additional peak wind gusts that were reported in northern Minnesota on Saturday. Brainerd had a peak wind gust of 45 mph, Detroit Lakes had a 44 mph gust and Duluth reported a peak gust of 41 mph. Just over the Minnesota/North Dakota border, Grand Forks had a Saturday wind gust of 63 mph and Fargo had a gust of 61 mph.

Now let’s look at the snow.

Parts of northwestern Minnesota saw several inches of snow Friday evening into Saturday morning. Thief River Falls reported six inches of new snow, as did Middle River, in Marshall County. There was a report of 5.4 inches in Crookston, which is in Polk County of northwestern Minnesota. Lighter snow totals occurred in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Saturday.

Additional snow reports will be found here as they are posted by the National Weather Service. You can pan and zoom the linked map to see snow totals plus the date and time of the measurement. Here’s how the Friday through Saturday snow report map looked at 11 a.m. Sunday:

You need to move the slider at the linked site to display snow reports that are more than 24 hours old.

Additional snow data is available from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network, also known as CoCoRaHS. Here’s their display of 24-hour snowfall totals through Sunday morning:

Saturday/Saturday night snow totals were generally around one-half inch in the Twin Cities metro area. There was a report of 2 inches at Lindstrom, in Chisago County.

MSP airport had 0.4 (four-tenths of an inch) of snow Saturday. I tallied 0.6 of an inch of new snow in St. Paul.

With a rain/snow mix initially, the falling temps late Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening led to many slick roads, streets and sidewalks.

Quiet weather in most areas Monday

Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have a dry Monday. A low pressure system in southern Canada could spin some scattered light snow showers over far northern Minnesota Monday afternoon and evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday:

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

Snow lovers will have to be patient; there aren’t any big snowstorms on the weather maps this week.

Temperature trends

Roughly the northern half of Minnesota will see Sunday highs in the 20s. Some lower 30s are possible elsewhere in Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin. The Twin Cities average high temperature is 31 degrees on Dec. 10. Metro area highs will be close to that mark today.

Monday highs will be mainly in the 30s:

Some spots in far northern Minnesota will see upper 20s, and southwestern Minnesota could see a few lower 40s.

Tuesday high temps will be in the 20s in northern and central Minnesota, with lower 30s to the south:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be in the lower 40s on Wednesday, followed by mid-to-upper 40s Thursday then lower 40s on Friday.

Thursday will be the warmest day of the week statewide, with most of Minnesota reaching the 40s:

Weather nugget

The coldest Dec. 10 high temperature in Twin Cities weather records was 3 degrees below zero, in 1977. The Twin Cities low temperature was 18 degrees below zero that day:

The Twin Cities high temperature the previous day, Dec. 9, 1977, was 5 degrees below zero!

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