Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

North Woods clipper dumps snow into Tuesday

Heavy snowfall at Arrowhead's tip; Twin Cities may see light wintry mix Tuesday morning

Snowfall projection for northeast Minnesota
Snowfall projection for northeastern Minnesota
Duluth National Weather Service office

Minnesota’s next clipper is focusing the heaviest snow in the northeast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s FV3 model seems to have a pretty good handle on the system as it tracks through northern Minnesota overnight into Tuesday.

On the map below, note the heaviest snow in the north Tuesday morning. The Twin Cities gets clipped by the passing front with a possible wintry mix of ice and a little snow Tuesday morning.

NOAA FV3 model
Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core model between 6 p.m. Monday and 6 p.m. Tuesday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

The heaviest snows of 4 to 9 inches are likely along the tip of the Arrowhead along higher terrain. Also note minor accumulations as we move farther south across Minnesota from a second system Wednesday night into Thursday.

Snowfall projection for Minnesota
Snowfall projection for Minnesota.
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

Roller coaster temperatures this week

A series of warm and cold fronts will sweep through Minnesota this week. Temperatures Tuesday afternoon will rise above freezing in the south.

Forecast high temperatures Tuesday
Forecast high temperatures Tuesday
NOAA

But the next cold front will plunge arctic air into Minnesota under sunny skies once again Wednesday.

Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
Forecast high temperatures Wednesday
NOAA

Thursday brings another warmup, and Friday looks like a full-blown thaw across Minnesota. We could see 50s in the far south and mid-40s into the Twin Cities by Friday afternoon.

Forecast high temperatures Friday
Forecast high temperatures Friday
NOAA

It’s typical to see wild temperature swings as we had toward March as air masses sweep freely across Minnesota. The weekend into early next week looks cold again with highs in the 20s south. But there are sign of another thaw late the first week of March.

Buckle up for weather whiplash in the coming days and weeks.