Weekend forecast: Snow accumulates Saturday up north; Sunday's cold

Let it snow!

I observed snow falling for about 30 minutes around mid-morning in St. Paul. Parts of the Twin Cities metro area even saw some big snowflakes at times, which dropped a light coating of snow on grassy areas.

Chalk it up as another sign that our mosquito season is coming to an end. I’ll probably still wear sandals indoors for a while.

Weekend snow accumulates in the north

Computer models still show that accumulating snow is most likely in northern Minnesota on Saturday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows this potential precipitation pattern Saturday through Saturday evening:

The NAM forecast model shows several inches of snow accumulation in parts of northern Minnesota Saturday into Saturday evening:

Here’s the Saturday snow forecast for northern Minnesota and far northwestern Wisconsin, posted by the Duluth office of the National Weather Service:

The Twin Cities metro area could see some rain showers at times on Saturday, with a few flakes in the mix Saturday morning. A few snow showers are also possible in the metro area Saturday night.

The snow begins late Friday night in parts of northwestern Minnesota and continues into Saturday afternoon, with several inches in some areas.

Here’s the Saturday snow forecast for northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota, posted by the Grand Forks office of the National Weather Service:

You can hear updated weather information on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Weekend temps and winds

Our average Twin Cities high temp is 58 degrees on Oct. 17. The metro area could see highs in the mid-50s on Saturday.

Highs will probably range from the mid and upper 30s in northeastern Minnesota to the upper 50s in far southern Minnesota Saturday afternoon:

Saturday will be breezy, with gusts of 18 to 28 mph:

Plotted values are in knots, with 17 knots equal to around 20 mph and 24 knots equal to around 28 mph.

Back to temps, the cold air will spread southward on Sunday. Highs in the 30s are expected on Sunday in most of northern and central Minnesota, with lower 40s in the Twin Cities metro area and southern Minnesota:

Sunday wind gusts of 16 to 22 mph are possible:

Fall colors

Strong winds have taken a lot of leaves off of our trees this week. Spotty fall colors remain on trees that were slower to change over from green to yellow, orange and red.

Here’s the latest fall color report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:

Parts of the Twin Cities metro area and parts of far southern Minnesota haven’t reached “past peak” fall color status yet.

Keep in mind that all deciduous trees are included in the fall color report, not just maples.

The Wisconsin fall color report can be found here.

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.