Snow lingers into early afternoon; temps ramp up this weekend

Snow will linger into early afternoon in much of the Twin Cities metro area, plus southeastern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin.

You can expect low visibilities in the heaviest snow bands, plus slick spots on some roads. The Minnesota Department of Transportation will have reports on road conditions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the precipitation pattern Friday afternoon and early evening:

A few areas that look snow-free in the loop will see some snow, but the loop illustrates the general precipitation pattern that’s expected.

Buffalo, Minn., just northwest of the seven-county Twin Cities metro area, reported 3 inches of new snow by late Friday morning. Many spots in the metro area will see around an inch of snow before it tapers off, with a bit more than that in a few spots.

Portions of western Minnesota were dealing with freezing fog Friday morning, which could linger into early 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.

Temperature trends

Most of northern Minnesota will have Friday afternoon highs in the 20s, with 30s central and south.

Highs in the 30s are expected across most Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Saturday:

Parts of southwestern Minnesota will reach the lower 40s.

Wind chills will be reasonable Saturday afternoon, mainly in the 20s:

Sunday highs reach the 40s in many areas:

The record Twin Cities high for Feb. 2 is 48 degrees. We’re projecting a Sunday high in the mid-40s for the metro area. Our average Twin Cities metro area high is only 25 degrees this time of year.

Sunday afternoon wind chill temps are expected to be mainly in the 30s:

Wind chill won’t be a big comfort factor this weekend!

We are expecting a cloud/sun mix for most areas this weekend. Even a bit of sun will be a nice change.

Record setting warmth?

Many spots will be close to record highs on Sunday, but the record that is most likely to fall is the warmest low temp on Feb. 2:

Keep in mind that record warm low temps are for the calendar day, which doesn’t end until midnight. We would miss a new record if the temp at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport dips below 31 degrees before midnight Sunday night.

Snow depths

If you have outdoor plans this weekend, you’ll be happy to know that there’s plenty of snow on the ground across most of Minnesota.

Here’s the latest snow depth map, courtesy of the Minnesota State Climatology Office and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:

You can see that snow cover ranges from 4 to 12 inches in much of southern Minnesota to over 36 inches in much of northeastern Minnesota. Some spots up there have between 36 inches and 48 inches of snow cover. The official Twin Cities snow depth was 7 inches Friday morning.

Mild weekend temperatures will shrink our snow cover a bit, but most of Minnesota has plenty of snow on the ground for cross-country skiers, sledders, snowboarders and snowmobilers.

If you’re looking for other outdoor — or indoor — options for the weekend, Explore Minnesota has a list of many events around the state of Minnesota. Among the events this weekend are the City of Lakes Loppet Ski Festival in Minneapolis and the St. Paul Winter Carnival torchlight parade, which starts at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

There’s a Saturday morning ice-bocce-tournament in Longville, which is in Cass County in northern Minnesota.

I hope that you have a great weekend!

Programming note

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