Plenty of weekend sunshine; Potential for rain, ice and snow Sunday night & Monday

Thanks to this week’s snowstorm, there’s plenty of snow cover across most of Minnesota. It’ll be a good weekend for sledding or cross-country skiing and we’ll enjoy sunshine and reasonable temps.

Temperature trends

After a chilly start this morning, temps recover nicely Saturday afternoon. Most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin will have Saturday highs in the 20s. There will be some teens in northwestern Minnesota and near the Canadian border.

Twin Cities metro area highs are forecast to reach the upper 20s, which would be a few degrees shy of our average Feb. 25 high of 32.

Low temps late Saturday night and early Sunday will be below zero to the north and slightly above zero in southern Minnesota and much of western Wisconsin:

Sunday afternoon highs reach the 30s in central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

Most of northern Minnesota will see Sunday highs in the 20s.

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to reach the upper 30s on Monday, followed by mid 30s Tuesday then lower 30s Wednesday, upper 20s Thursday and lower 30s on Friday.

Rain, ice, snow chances Sunday night and Monday

A low pressure system will spread precipitation across much of southern and eastern Minnesota plus western Wisconsin Sunday night and Monday.

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

The precipitation may start as rain, with freezing rain in areas where surface temps are cold enough. That would be followed by a wintry mix later in the day.

Northeastern Minnesota may see a wintry mix and then a changeover to mainly snow.

Here’s a look at the icing potential Sunday night and Monday:

Here’s a look at snow and ice prospects in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

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.

Weather nugget

The season snowfall total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is now at 71 inches. That’s 32.9 inches higher than the Twin Cities average snowfall total at this point in our snow season.

In case you’re wondering, the Twin Cities record season snowfall total is 98.6 inches, set in 1983-84.

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.