Winter storm Monday and Tuesday; updated snow forecast

Updated at 7:20 p.m. Sunday

The 44 degree reading at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 11:36 am today was the warmest official Twin Cities temp since we hit 58 degrees on Dec. 15, 2021. That 44 degree temp felt spring-like; 44 is our average Twin Cities high temp on March 20. Our average Twin Cities high is 30 degrees on Feb. 20. 

There were a lot of 40s in the southern third of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin Sunday:

I’m sure that many people enjoyed the Sunday warmth, but snow lovers will be glad to hear that a plowable snow is headed our way for Monday and Tuesday.

The big picture

Snow is expected to spread into Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin Sunday night and Monday, then linger through much of Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 11 p.m. Sunday to 11 p.m. on Tuesday:

The Twin Cities metro area is expected to see more snow on Tuesday than on Monday.

Warnings and advisories

The National Weather Service has included the northern half of the Twin Cities metro area, much of central Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin in a winter storm warning Monday and Tuesday:

The winter storm warning and the winter weather advisory start at 3 p.m. Monday in the Twin Cities metro area and continue to midnight Tuesday night. Advisories and warnings in western and central Minnesota start at midnight Sunday night and continue until 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Central Minnesota and parts of northwestern Wisconsin could see over a foot of snow over the two-day period. Portions of the far north metro could see 8 to 10 inches of snow, with the bulk of the snow Monday night and Tuesday. The winter weather advisory for the southern portion of the metro area and southern Minnesota is for lesser snow amounts Monday and Tuesday; generally 4 to 6 inches for the two-day total. There could also be some light freezing rain or freezing drizzle at times.

Here are National Weather Service forecast snow amounts for Monday and Monday evening:

And here are forecast snow amounts for Tuesday:

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories also cover portions of northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin Monday and Tuesday:

Here are forecast snow amounts in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin Monday through Tuesday:

There are winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota Monday into Tuesday:

These are the forecast two-day snow totals in northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota:

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

Temperature trends

Some locations will see Monday highs at 1 or 2 in the morning. Daylight-hour highs on Monday will range from single digits in the north to 20s in southeastern Minnesota:

Twin Cities metro area temps may be in the low to mid 20s around 1 or 2 a.m. on Monday, then daylight-hour highs are expected to be around 20 degrees. Metro area highs are projected to be be in the mid teens on Tuesday, then lower teens Wednesday followed by mid teens Thursday and Friday.

Weather nugget

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has not seen a single day with 4 inches or more of new snow since Dec. 10, 2021. MSP airport tallied 11 inches of snow that day.

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.