A breezy Sunday; snow in southern Minnesota Sunday night/Monday

Highland National Golf Course in St. Paul hasn’t yet opened for the 2021 golf season, but their driving range was open on Saturday. It was teeming with golfers.

The highest temp that I saw Saturday afternoon at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 59 degrees. That’s 19 degrees warmer than our average high temp on March 13.  Our temps will back off on Sunday, and the winds will pick up. Sunday highs will be mainly in the 40s, with some 30s in northeastern Minnesota:

Some spots in the Twin Cities metro area and southeastern Minnesota could touch 50 degrees.

Winds pick up on Sunday, with gusts of 20 to 25 mph in many areas:

Plotted gusts are in knots, with 20 knots equal to 23 mph. Wind gusts could approach 30 mph Sunday afternoon in southwestern Minnesota.

Snow returns Sunday night and lingers into Monday

A strong low pressure system is bringing heavy snow to portions of Colorado this weekend. That low pressure system could spread showers into southwestern Minnesota Sunday evening, then the showers turn to snow Sunday night as the precipitation spreads northeastward. There’s the potential for heavy snow in portions of southern Minnesota late Sunday night and Monday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern for Sunday evening through Monday evening:

A winter storm watch starts at 10 p.m. Sunday in southwestern Minnesota and continues until 1 p.m. Monday. South-central Minnesota has a winter storm watch that starts at 1 a.m. Monday and continues until 4 p.m. Monday:

Here are details of the winter storm watch:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN 147 PM CST Sat Mar 13 2021 ...CONFIDENCE INCREASING IN HEAVY SNOW POTENTIAL ACROSS SOUTHERN MINNESOTA LATE SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY... .A Winter Storm Watch remains in effect late Sunday night through early Monday afternoon south of a line from Canby, to Olivia, Gaylord, Le Center, and Owatonna. A band of precipitation will lift northeast into southern Minnesota late Sunday night, quickly becoming all snow. This will be a heavy, wet snow, with rates of over an inch per hour possible. The snow will taper off during the late morning into early afternoon. Total accumulation of 5 to 8 inches are possible, with the highest amounts expected near I-90. MNZ064-065-067-073>076-082>085-091>093-140400- /O.CON.KMPX.WS.A.0005.210315T0600Z-210315T2100Z/ Yellow Medicine-Renville-Sibley-Redwood-Brown-Nicollet-Le Sueur- Watonwan-Blue Earth-Waseca-Steele-Martin-Faribault-Freeborn- Including the cities of Granite Falls, Olivia, Gaylord, Redwood Falls, New Ulm, St Peter, Le Sueur, St James, Mankato, Waseca, Owatonna, Fairmont, Blue Earth, and Albert Lea 147 PM CST Sat Mar 13 2021 ...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 5 to 8 inches possible. * WHERE...Portions of central, south central, southwest and west central Minnesota. * WHEN...From late Sunday night through Monday afternoon. * IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult, including I-90. The hazardous conditions could impact the Monday morning commute. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Monitor the latest forecasts for updates on this situation.

The Twin Cities metro area is not in a winter storm watch for Monday, but we’ll see some snow, which could be mixed with rain at times. Some forecast models show an inch or two of snow in the metro area on Monday, with the highest totals in the south and southwest metro….check updates.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR network, and you’ll see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.

Snowstorm hits Colorado

A winter storm is bringing very heavy snow to parts of Colorado, southern Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota and western Nebraska this weekend.

Parts of Colorado will see 18 to 30 inches of new snow this weekend. Here are the forecast snow amounts in Colorado:

Winter storm warnings cover much of that area:

Blizzard warnings have been issued for parts of southern Wyoming, northwestern Nebraska and a portion of southwestern South Dakota.

Here are details of the warnings in Colorado:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Denver CO 323 PM MST Sat Mar 13 2021 ...POWERFUL WINTER STORM WITH DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL CONDITIONS ALONG THE FRONT RANGE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY... .A significant late season winter storm near the Four Corners region will track slowly east/northeast across southeast Colorado late tonight and Sunday. This track will bring significant snowfall to much of northeast and north central Colorado, and likely result in difficult if not impossible travel through Sunday and Sunday night. The most severe conditions from deep accumulating snow will likely occur in and near the Front Range Mountains and Foothills where 2 to 4 feet of snow may fall, and along the I-25 Urban Corridor where up to 2 feet of snow can be expected. The favored locations for the heaviest snow totals along the I-25 Corridor will be from Boulder north through the Fort Collins area. Temperatures will be warm enough to bring a mix of rain and snow across the plains mainly east of a Fort Morgan to Limon line as the storm matures through Sunday. Winds are also expected to increase Sunday, with some blowing and drifting snow possible across the plains and I-25 Corridor. COZ038>041-043-140630- /O.CON.KBOU.WS.W.0004.000000T0000Z-210315T1200Z/ Larimer County Below 6000 Feet/Northwest Weld County-Boulder And Jefferson Counties Below 6000 Feet/West Broomfield County-North Douglas County Below 6000 Feet/Denver/West Adams and Arapahoe Counties/East Broomfield County-Elbert/Central and East Douglas Counties Above 6000 Feet-Central and South Weld County- Including the cities of Elbert, Roggen, Arvada, Larkspur, Boulder, City of Denver, Aurora, Littleton, Brighton, Highlands Ranch, Fort Lupton, Loveland, Kiowa, Eaton, Longmont, Fondis, Denver International Airport, Golden, Parker, Castle Rock, Lakewood, Fort Collins, Greeley, Nunn, and Hereford 323 PM MST Sat Mar 13 2021 ...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MDT MONDAY... * WHAT...Snow, heavy at times, expected tonight through Sunday. Total snow accumulations of 12 to 24 inches expected, with locally heavier amounts possible near Boulder and Fort Collins. Thundersnow is possible. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. * WHERE...Fort Collins, Boulder and the western suburbs of Denver, Denver, Castle Rock, and Greeley. * WHEN...Until 6 AM MDT Monday. * IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult to impossible tonight and Sunday. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If you must travel, keep an extra flashlight, food, and water in your vehicle in case of an emergency. The latest road conditions for Colorado can be obtained by calling 5 1 1 or by going to www.cotrip. org

Temperature trends

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s on Monday, followed by lower 40s Tuesday and upper 40s Wednesday through Friday. We’ll probably see highs in the 50s next weekend. Warmer than normal temps may then linger into the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows a tendency for above-normal temps in Minnesota and western Wisconsin from March 21 through March 27:

We’ll see if that pans out.

Daylight saving time returns on Sunday

We return to Daylight Saving Time at 2 a.m. this Sunday:

Most of our phones and laptops make the change automatically, but if you have a clock or wristwatch that needs human intervention you’ll want to set it ahead one hour before you go to sleep Saturday night. Twin Cities sunset is at 7:18 p.m. this Sunday.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.