Blizzard warnings in Northwest Minnesota, winter weather advisories across the state

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Here’s a little meteorological inside baseball.

There are several critical numbers that meteorologists use to indicate certain weather thresholds. This is a little geeky, but here are a few numbers that mean something special to meteorologists.

There are many more numbers that mean something special to meteorologists. But when it comes to pinpointing the rain-snow line, the 

 is critical to pinpointing the rain-snow line in storms. 

There can be a variety of liquid and frozen precipitation types depending on how the 0C line sets up in the lowest mile of the atmosphere. 

Our inbound storm system Thursday and Friday presents some interesting early forecast challenges. 

Take a look at some of the forecast model output from Monday. 

NOAA’s GFS model has been painting the 32-degree (0C) isotherm near the Twin Cities late Thursday. That scenario would mean heavy snow north and west of the Twin Cities, with rain from the metro south trending toward snow by Friday morning. This would place a band of heavier snow across the Twin Cities early Friday morning.

The Canadian model is a little further north. That scenario would shove rain and the heaviest snowfall zone farther north.

The often trusty Euro is taking the southern route with this system. Under this scenario, the heaviest snow bands would layout across southern Minnesota generally south of the Twin Cities.

Let’s see if we get greater model consensus Tuesday.

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

The location of the 32-degree isotherm is critical to snowfall totals in a storm.

NOAA

NOAA via tropical tidbits

Environment Canada via tropical tidbits

European model (ECMWF) forecast for 7 pm Thursday

Inside weather baseball: Tracking the rain-snow line

Go Deeper.

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