Dense fog and areas of freezing fog into Thursday, with snow to the north

Most of us will be dealing with areas of dense fog from Wednesday evening through the overnight hours and into early Thursday morning. Some of us will also have freezing fog and freezing drizzle, with accumulating snow in parts of west-central and northern Minnesota.

A dense fog advisory begins at 9 p.m. this Wednesday in the Twin Cities metro area and southeastern Minnesota, and the advisory will run through 6 a.m. Thursday.

Details of the advisory, from the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service:

Patchy freezing fog and freezing drizzle will also be possible in the Twin Cities metro area overnight Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.

Dense fog advisories have already begun in western and central Minnesota and continue into Thursday morning:

Parts of central Minnesota and much of west-central Minnesota and northwestern Minnesota will see a wintry mix of freezing fog and freezing drizzle and some accumulating snow Wednesday evening into Thursday:

“Tonight” in the graphic refers to Wednesday night.

Those areas are in a winter weather advisory that continues from Wednesday evening into early Thursday:

Northeastern Minnesota and parts of northwestern Wisconsin will also see some areas of dense fog, drizzle and freezing drizzle and some periods of light snow:

Here are the advisories for northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin Wednesday evening through Thursday:

The dense fog advisory for Duluth and northwestern Wisconsin continues from Wednesday evening until 10 a.m. Thursday, the winter weather advisory in northeastern Minnesota continues until 6 p.m. Thursday.

Updates on the advisories will be posted by the NWS offices in the Twin Cities, Duluth and Grand Forks. 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 Minnesota Department of Transportation will have updated road conditions.

Temperature trends

Our average Twin Cities high temperature is 25 degrees this time of year. Temps will remain above normal for several more days.

Thursday highs reach the 30s in most spots, with some 20s in the far western part of Minnesota:

Highs in the 20s spread across northern and central Minnesota on Friday, with 30s south:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s on Saturday, followed by lower 30s on Sunday.

Weekend snowstorm

A lot can change between now and Saturday, but it still looks like plowable snow will be possible this weekend in parts of Minnesota.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System Model shows the potential precipitation pattern Friday evening through Sunday night:

You can see that the GFS model shows the rain/snow line remaining close to the Twin Cities metro area during much of the weekend. The metro area could see mainly rain initially, with a changeover to a rain/snow mix and then snow as we go through the weekend. With this GFS forecast track, the heaviest snow would be over parts of western, central and northern Minnesota. Stay tuned as the forecast models hone in on the storm track over the next couple of days!