Chilly and bright on Sunday, with lighter winds

It was nice to see the sunshine on Saturday, even though we had cool temps and gusty winds.

The Saturday high temp at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 33 degrees. That’s well below our average March 26 Twin Cities high of 47 degrees. Strong winds made it feel chillier than the actual air temperature.

Lighter winds on Sunday

A Canadian high pressure system will move closer Saturday night and Sunday, so our winds will lighten up. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the surface pressure pattern and the lack of nearby precipitation from Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon:

The isobars become farther apart with time, which indicates decreasing wind speeds.

Temperature trends

Low temps early Sunday morning will range from single digits below zero in far northern Minnesota to teens above zero in the south:

Twin Cities metro area lows are expected to range from around 10 to 15 degrees Sunday morning.

Sunday highs will be mainly in the 30s, with some 20s in northern Minnesota:

Parts of the metro area could touch 34 degrees Sunday afternoon, and we’ll have plenty of sunshine to go along with our light winds.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 40 degrees on Monday, followed by lower 40s Tuesday, around 40 Wednesday, then upper 30s Thursday and Friday.

Sloppy storm this week

A low pressure system will spread precipitation into Minnesota and Wisconsin late Tuesday. It will begin as mainly rain to the east, with rain or a rain/snow mix in western and northern Minnesota that changes to mainly snow over time. The changeover to all snow may happen later on Wednesday in parts of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Here’s the storm depiction for Wednesday morning, from the Duluth office of the National Weather service:

Several inches of snow are possible in areas that see the earliest changeover to snow, so check forecast updates. Based on current model trends, the Twin Cities metro area will have a chance of rain showers Tuesday afternoon. Periods of rain are likely in the metro area Tuesday night and Wednesday, possibly mixed with snow & sleet at times. A wintry mix Wednesday evening would then change to all snow later Wednesday night and continue into Thursday.

Changes in the storm track and the temperature profile in the lowest couple miles of the atmosphere will determine how much rain, snow and sleet/freezing rain falls in any given location this week.

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.

Still plenty of snow up north

Snow lovers will be interested to know that there’s still plenty of snow on the ground in much of northern Minnesota. Here’s the weekly snow depth map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

Most of north-central and northeastern Minnesota has 12 inches or more of snow on the ground and parts of northeastern Minnesota (especially Cook County and eastern Lake County) have 24 inches or more of snow cover.

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.