Spring begins with warm temps; rain and snow for some areas on Tuesday

It’s great when we have weekend sunshine and warmth in March.

Spotty areas of dense fog could linger until midday in parts of southern Minnesota, but most of us will enjoy a beautiful Sunday.

Spring has sprung!

Meteorological spring began on March 1, now it’s time to talk about astronomical spring, which began at 10:33 this morning:

According to earthsky.org:

The March equinox – also called the vernal equinox – marks the beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere

Day and night are not exactly the same length on the date of the equinox because we use the top of the rising or setting sun to define sunrise and sunset, rather than the center of the sun. There’s also some refraction or bending of the sun’s rays as they travel through the atmosphere, which adds to our minutes of daylight. More details on those two factors can be found here.

Temperature trends

Our average Twin Cities high temp is 44 degrees this time of year. Some spots in the metro area could touch 60 degrees by late Sunday afternoon. Highs will reach the 60s in much of southwestern and south-central Minnesota, with mainly 50s elsewhere in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. There could be a few 40s in northeastern Minnesota.

Monday highs will be in the 60s in the Twin Cities metro area and southern Minnesota, with 50s in central Minnesota and mainly 40s to the north:

There’ll be some 30s near Lake Superior.

Twin Cities metro area high are projected to retreat to the mid 40s Tuesday and lower 40s on Wednesday, followed by upper 40s Thursday and lower 50s on Friday.     

Rain/snow potential

Scattered rain showers are possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Monday, then many areas will see periods of rain Monday night.

On Tuesday, rain mixes with snow or changes to snow in the west and north, while remaining mainly rain in the metro area and points to the southeast. The metro area could see a rain/snow mix or a changeover to mainly snow Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

NOAA’s Global Forecast System (GFS) model shows the potential precipitation pattern Monday evening through Tuesday night:

Northern Minnesota and areas just to the west of the metro area have the best chance of accumulating snow Tuesday into early Wednesday, but that could change.

Here’s the Duluth NWS discussion of the snow and wintry mix potential:

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.

Weather nugget

The official March snowfall total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is currently at 4.1 inches. The snow total at MSP airport for the 2021-22 snow season (which began in the fall) is 47.6 inches; that’s 2.2 inches above average to this point in our snow season.

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.