Much less wind on Sunday; mild temps this week

A nearby sliding hill in St. Paul has seen many visitors over the past few days. People want to take advantage of the snow cover, which has been minimal to non-existent for much of this winter.

Warm clothes were needed for outdoor activities on Saturday, with wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph in many parts of Minnesota. Some spots had gusts over 40 mph at times.

Saturday’s gusty winds were due to a low pressure system that was centered northeast of Lake Superior Saturday afternoon. That low pressure system will track eastward Saturday night, so much lighter winds are on tap for Sunday.

Most of Minnesota will have dry weather Sunday into Monday, but parts of northeastern Minnesota could see a few light snow showers Sunday morning. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 8 a.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday:

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

Updated forecast information will be posted by the National Weather Service offices in the Twin Cities, Duluth, La Crosse, Wis., Sioux Falls, S.D. and Grand Forks, N.D.

A much different look

We’ve had snow cover since Wednesday evening, but I’m still getting used to the dramatic change from the earth tones that we’ve viewed throughout much of this winter.

Here’s a look across Highland National Golf Course in St. Paul, just hours before the snow began on Wednesday

Here’s that same vista on Saturday:

Temperature trends

The Saturday afternoon high temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 28 degrees. That was just one degree shy of the average Twin Cities high on Feb. 17. Metro area high temps are expected to reach the lower 30s on Sunday.

Sunday highs will be in the 30s across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

Much of the northern third of Minnesota will have Sunday highs in the 20s.

Monday high temps will be mainly in the 30s, with some lower 40s in far southern Minnesota:

Far northern Minnesota will see some 20s.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 40 degrees on Tuesday, followed by mid 40s Wednesday then upper 30s Thursday and mid 30s on Friday. It looks like the metro area will see highs in the 30s next weekend.

Above-normal temps could then continue into the last week of February, according to the latest outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center:

Weather nugget

This is likely to be the warmest meteorological winter (December, January, February) in Twin Cities weather records.

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.