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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Mixed weather bag: Rain, snow showers, and some sun this weekend.

Lake Superior ice cover running near seasonal average for early April.

A large boat cuts through an icy lake.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Hollyhock is on a mission to break up ice and clear a path for other ships near Duluth's harbor this spring.
Derek Montgomery for MPR News

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If you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. Or more like 15 hours this weekend.

Two minor weather systems passing through Minnesota this weekend will be strong enough to bring a mix of rain and snow showers. In between, sunnier skies will grace much of southern Minnesota Saturday afternoon.

The first system rolls through Friday night into early Saturday. A mix of light rain and snow showers covers most of central and southern Minnesota. The bulk of the system with more concentrated precipitation coverage rolls through Iowa.

NOAA NAM 3 km model
NOAA NAM 3 km model between 1 pm Friday and 6 am Saturday.
NOAA via tropical tidbits

Saturday starts cloudy, but sunshine should return to most of southern and western Minnesota during Saturday afternoon. Here’s NOAA’s NAM 3 km model low cloud coverage forecast for 3 pm Saturday.

NOAA NAM 3 km model cloud cover output
NOAA NAM 3 km model cloud cover output for 3 pm Saturday.
NOAA via tropical tidbits

Highs should approach 50 degrees in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota alter Saturday afternoon.

Forecast high temperatures Saturday
Forecast high temperatures Saturday.
NOAA

So Saturday afternoon through sunset looks like the best time of the weekend to get out and enjoy some decent early spring weather.

Sunday brings another weather system to Minnesota. It looks like another mix of rain and snow showers. NOAA’s NAM 3 km resolution model paints bands of rain and snow showers across much of Minnesota Sunday afternoon and evening. The loop below runs between 1 pm Sunday and 1 am Monday.

NOAA NAM 3 km model Sunday
NOAA NAM 3 km model Sunday 1 pm to Monday 1 am.
NOAA via tropical tidbits

There could be a light coating of snow again in many areas by Monday morning.

I know…

Great Lakes ice cover near seasonal average

Lake Superior is showing plenty of open water as we move into early April. Most of the ice is packed near-shore.

Lake Superior MODIS Imagery - True Color, 250 m Resolution
Lake Superior MODIS Imagery Friday, April 1, 2022. - True Color, 250 m Resolution.
NASA via University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lake Superior Ice cover is currently running close to seasonal averages for April 1st at around 20%.

Lake Superior ice cover
Lake Superior ice cover.
NOAA/GERL

Ice cover usually declines rapidly through the month of April to less than 5% by May 1.