Snow Sunday night and Monday morning; a slow Monday morning commute

The top weather story is the snow that’s expected to spread across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin as we go through Sunday evening and Sunday night.

Parts of northern Minnesota will have a chance of scattered snow showers during the daylight hours of Sunday, but the main event moves into west-central and northwestern Minnesota late Sunday afternoon and spreads to the east and southeast as we go through Sunday evening and Sunday night. Snow lingers through much of Monday morning, then tapers off from west to east Monday afternoon.

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

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon:

The Monday morning commute is likely to be slower than normal.

How much snow?

Sunday evening through Monday snow amounts are expected to be highest from central Minnesota through portions of northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

Here’s a snow forecast that includes central Minnesota and the Twin Cities:

Advisories for some areas Sunday evening into Monday

Winter weather advisories in central Minnesota and from Cass county over to Duluth begin at 9 p.m. Sunday and run through noon on Monday. The winter weather advisories for northwestern Wisconsin and parts of west-central Wisconsin start at midnight Sunday night and run through Monday afternoon.

Here’s a closeup of the winter weather advisory in central Minnesota that begins at 9 p.m. Sunday:

As of Saturday evening, the Sunday evening/Monday winter weather advisory does not include the Twin Cities metro area. The metro area could see anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of snow from late Sunday night through noon on Monday, with the highest totals in the far north metro and the lowest totals in the far south metro. You can check for forecast updates from the Duluth and Twin Cities offices of the NWS.

Arctic chill moves in after the snow

Our second weather headline is the blast of arctic air that spreads across Minnesota and Wisconsin after the snow.

Sunday highs are expected to range from the teens in far northwestern Minnesota to the upper 30s in the far southeast. Our average Dec. 8 high temp is 29 degrees in the Twin Cities, but we’ll reach at least the middle 30s Sunday afternoon.

Monday highs are chilly:

Tuesday highs are in the single digits below zero across much of northern Minnesota and slightly above zero in the south:

Our coldest morning will be on Wednesday, with teens below zero in many locations:

Some spots in central and northern Minnesota will probably dip into the 20s below zero early Wednesday.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach about 3 above zero on Wednesday, followed by upper teens Thursday and upper 20s on Friday. That’ll be a welcome rebound late in the week!

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.