Snowy Sunday in southern Minnesota; abundant sunshine for the coming week

Clouds are still hanging around this Sunday morning. Snow has been falling from those clouds across southern Minnesota with a bit of rain and mixed precipitation reported mainly along the warmer southern edge.

The snow band has been building slowly northward toward and began triggering snowfall across parts of the Twin Cities area shortly before 8 a.m. Accumulations are likely across portions of the Twin Cities this morning, especially on grassy areas in Scott and Dakota counties on the south side.

An inch or two of slushy snow is likely to accumulate in portions of southern Minnesota. Look for up to an inch of snow and periods of rain in the Rochester area.

Partial clearing could bring the metro area welcome sunshine by late Sunday afternoon.

Sunday's high temperatures definitely will be on the chilly side. Expect highs just from the mid 30s to low 40s. The Twin Cities should have a high around 42 on a day with the average high is 59. We have reached that temperature of 59 degrees on just one day so far this month; that was a very humid, stormy 79 on October 3.

Scattered light snow showers will pop up later on Sunday and continue Sunday night courtesy of a swirl of low clouds across northern Minnesota.

Also note on the forecast map the possibility of severe storms and flash flooding across a broad swath of Texas later on Sunday.

Sunshine coming

The aforementioned partial clearing later on Sunday will precede an abundance of sunshine for the upcoming week.

Temperatures, however, will be slow to recover. It looks like most of Minnesota will remain on the chilly side through about Wednesday.

And clearing skies overnight mean that chilly mornings will be on tap.  Frost and a widespread hard freeze are likely Monday morning including in the Twin Cities area. So drain those garden hoses and outdoor faucets.

A couple mild days later this week

The meteorological timing should be right to treat us to mild temperatures on Thursday and Friday. Many locations from Worthington to the Twin Cities all the way north to International Falls could sneak into the low 60s on Thursday.

Chillier next weekend

Look for cooler temperatures to return for next weekend. We should remain storm-free through that period.

An end to the chilliness by late October

A weather product called the Week 3-4 Outlook Temperature Probability indicates that our chilly air will gradually move off to the east and south to be replaced by rather mild temperatures for the end of October and early November. Orange areas are likely to be warmer than normal while blue areas are likely to be colder than normal during that period.