Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Dwindling snow cover south, deep snow up north

Bare fields emerging in southern Minnesota.

It’s interesting to look at the snow cover map across the Upper Midwest these days. Basically everywhere south of Minnesota is snow-free.

Across Minnesota, snow cover ranges from a trace of snow in the south to almost 3 feet in the deep woods up north. Here’s the latest snow depth analysis from NOAA’s National Operational Hydrological Remote Sensing Center. (NOHRSC)

Snow depth
Snow depth
NOAA/NOHRSC

You can clearly see the bare ground in Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota from space on Tuesday’s mostly cloud-free MODIS Terra 1,000-meter resolution image.

Snow cover Tuesday afternoon
Snow cover Tuesday afternoon
NASA via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Temperature impact

The impact of snow cover on temperatures is astounding as higher March sun kicks in. Snow-free areas heat up much more rapidly. Temperatures made the mid-60s Wednesday afternoon in nearby snow-free areas.

Temperatures Wednesday afternoon
Temperatures Wednesday afternoon
Oklahoma Mesonet

Going, going…

The Twin Cities has lost 8 inches of snow cover in the past 2 weeks. Current snow depth is 1-inch at MSP Airport.