Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Mild weekend temps; Snow chance far northern Minnesota Sat. night/early Sunday

Updated snow cover map

Portions of northwestern, central and west-central Minnesota are dealing with areas of dense fog and freezing fog Saturday morning. Visibilities are expected to improve by midday.

Today will be the brightest day of the weekend elsewhere in Minnesota plus west-central Wisconsin.

Weekend highs

Mild temperatures are expected in most areas today and Sunday.

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 30 degrees on Feb. 18. Metro area highs are expected to be in the upper 30s today and a few spots in the metro could touch 40. Highs in the 30s are expected today across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Sunday highs are mainly in the 30s, but northwestern and west-central Minnesota will have highs in the 20s:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Far northwestern Minnesota could see Sunday highs in the teens.

Snow chance far northern Minnesota

Periods of light snow are possible in far northern Minnesota Saturday night into Sunday morning. Snow totals are expected to be generally less than one inch, but some spots near the Canadian border could see between one and two inches of snow.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale (NAM) forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 5 p.m. Saturday to noon on Sunday:

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Simulated radar from 5 p.m. Saturday to noon on Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

Some spots in the northern third of Minnesota that look dry in the NAM loop could see a bit of light snow at times.

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

Snow depths

Snow depths have decreased in parts of Minnesota this past week, due to Tuesday’s steady rain plus a few days of mild temps.

Here’s the latest Minnesota snow depth map, from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

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Minnesota snow depth
Minnesota State Climatology Office/Minnesota DNR

The official Twin Cities snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 4 inches right now, with 4 to 8 inches of snow cover across much of the metro area.

Snow depths are 18 inches or higher from northern Pine County into northeastern Minnesota. The light purple shaded areas that cover much of Lake County and Cook County of northeastern Minnesota have between 24 and 36 inches of snow on the ground.

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. Saturday and Sunday.