Areas of light snow and flurries into Monday; much milder Wednesday into weekend

I have enjoyed watching the spinning, dancing flakes of light snow flurries all day Sunday—very pretty. And no additional shoveling will be needed.

Those flakes have been coming our way courtesy of a weak trough aloft diving south from Canada.

Another weak trough

A second weak trough is cruising out of the Canadian prairies and spreading light snow into parts of northern Minnesota this Sunday afternoon. Snow will track into the Duluth area and then farther southeast toward the Twin Cities Sunday night.

Parts of northern Minnesota might pick up around an inch of snow by Monday morning while the Twin Cities area should expect just a dusting toward morning.

Chilly Monday coming

Cool Canadian air will give us a rather chilly start to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Morning low temperatures are likely to be mainly in the teens below zero across western and far northern Minnesota. Most of the rest of the state will have lows in the negative singles. The Twin Cities will probably be the hot spot with lows around 2 above.

Afternoon temperatures will remain on the cool side as well. Highs are likely to be just in the single digits across western Minnesota and teens on the eastern side of the state. The Twin Cities should reach about 15.

At least partial sunshine is likely, mainly during the afternoon. Winds will be light.

Much milder beginning midweek

Tuesday will bring us afternoon high temperatures much closer to average.

But the real warmup will take place on Wednesday. All of Minnesota will have very mild temperatures for January. Most of the state should warm into the 30s. The Twin Cities should warm to nearly 40 degrees.

While Wednesday is likely to be the warmest day this coming week, look for afternoon temperatures into the 30s for the Twin Cities into the weekend.

Mild yes, but also messy

The core of a weather-maker will pass by to our south on Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks to our expected mild temperatures, this system could bring a mix of rain, snow and maybe some freezing rain to mainly southern and eastern Minnesota on those days.

Cold February?

Long-range forecasting can be pretty iffy. But it is interesting that the February temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center calls for a good chance of a colder-than-normal February for the North Central States area including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas.