Federal agents are executing warrants at Twin Cities daycare providers

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

It’s a wintry storm parade on Minnesota’s weather maps this week. Three storm systems feature snow and high winds between Wednesday and Sunday. 

Let’s break down the systems and highlight snow and wind potential for different parts of Minnesota with each one. 

Our first weather system delivered lighter snow as expected Wednesday morning. We got off relatively easy with this one. Snowfall totals ranged between 1 and 2 inches on most of the Twin Cities. Higher snowfall totals fell to the north. 

Here are some select snowfall totals recorded from Wednesday morning:

The next weather system is making a beeline for the northern half of Minnesota. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest 18Z Wednesday NAM 3 km model shows the wrapped up system plowing through Minnesota Thursday. Forecast models favor mostly snow north of the Twin Cities with a mix trending to mostly rain in the south. 

The forecast model loop below runs between noon Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday.

Winter storm warnings are flying in the north. Here’s the National Weather Service bulletin:

Blizzard warnings are out for the North Shore once again.

High wind watches and warnings are up for most of Minnesota Thursday into Friday. Winds will gust between 30 and 60 mph for Minnesota, especially Thursday night into Friday morning. Some tree branch and power line damage is possible with this storm.

Here’s the National Weather Service warning for parts of west-central Minnesota and eastern North Dakota:

Here’s the high wind information for southern Minnesota:

It should be noted that some recent snowfall systems have suddenly tracked 50 to 100 miles farther south than models had forecast in the last 24 hours. 

If that happens again, it’s possible that the Twin Cities could see more snow with this system than currently projected by forecast models. 

The third and hopefully final wintry system arrives late Saturday through Sunday. This one looks like the biggest of the three, potentially. Forecast models crank up a textbook 

 with heavy snow potential and high winds.

Wednesday’s European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model run shows the snow zone favoring the southern half of Minnesota with this system. 

The usually trusty Euro puts the heaviest snow areas south of the Twin Cities along the Interstate 90 corridor at this early forecast stage. 

This system has the dynamics and moisture potential to produce at least 6 to 12 inches of snow in the heaviest snow zone by late Sunday.

I’ll spare you the way-too-early clickbait snowfall forecast maps four days ahead of the storm, but it should be noted that many models dump totals of more than a foot in the heaviest snow zone by Sunday night.

I’m very confident we’ll see a significant snowfall event somewhere in southern Minnesota from Saturday night through Sunday. What we can’t credibly say yet is where the heaviest snowfall axis will line up or just what precise snowfall totals look like yet. 

The most actionable weather forecast at this point is to expect snow and wind Saturday night through Sunday. Travel issues are likely. This looks very plowable for much of southern Minnesota on the current forecast track.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

A series of wintry storms swipes Minnesota through this weekend. Heavy snow north Thursday. Heavy snow could hit southern Minnesota late Saturday and Sunday.

Storm parade: High winds, heavy snow north Thursday; bigger weekend storm possible

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox