Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

A bright Saturday; back to the 50s

Updated Minnesota snow depth map

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Friday in Minnetonka
Ron Trenda/MPR News

The sunshine was great yesterday, and we’ll have plenty of sunshine today as well.

We haven’t reached 50 degrees in the Twin Cities since last Saturday. That cool streak ends today. Saturday highs reach the 50s across much of central and southern Minnesota plus western Wisconsin:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Most of northern Minnesota will reach the 40s, with 50s along the Red River Valley.

Saturday afternoon wind gusts will be fairly light in most areas, but gusts could approach 25 mph in the Red River Valley of northwestern Minnesota:

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Saturday 1 p.m. forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Forecast wind gusts are in knots, with 20 knots equal to 23 mph.

Still plenty of snow up north

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

Snow depth
Snow depth.
Minnesota DNR

Most of north-central Minnesota has 8 inches or more of snow on the ground. Northeastern Minnesota has 12 inches or more of snow on the ground, with 18 inches or more of snow cover in portions of eastern Lake County and 24 inches or more of snow cover in much of Cook County.

Update

A new updraft will be posted around 10:15 a.m. with a look at Sunday and the week ahead.

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.