A brutally cold Wednesday for parts of Minnesota, followed by more snow

Wednesday is starting off bitterly cold, but temperatures will slowly rise all though the day and keep rising overnight. Light snow chances return to northern Minnesota by Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday’s temperatures

Almost the entire state was below zero as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, with portions of northern Minnesota seeing minus 20 or colder. The map below also shows winds across the state; towns that are circled and without wind barbs are indicating calm winds:

So, fortunately some of the coldest spots are seeing light or even calm winds, leading to minimal wind chill impact on top of the cold.

As another weather system approaches, temperatures will slowly rise all day and keep creeping up through the overnight Wednesday. Therefore, highs will be set at the end of the day. Here is the temperature trend for the Twin Cities through Thursday morning:

Afternoon temperatures will still be colder, with northern and central Minnesota in the single-digits, and southern Minnesota barely in the teens.

Winds also start picking up again through the day, and by Wednesday evening, much of the state will be seeing wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph or higher.

That will add a wind chill back into the already cold air.

More snow

The same system that brings rising temperatures also starts to move snow across northern Minnesota by late Wednesday afternoon.

There is also a slight chance for freezing precipitation to mix in. The one area that could see more snow is along the northern edge of Lake Superior, and due to that, there is a winter storm watch that begins for Cook and Lake counties at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

That storm brings more widespread precipitation across the state on Thursday. Another Updraft with the extended forecast will be posted around 9 a.m.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Monday through Friday morning.