Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Cold, breezy with scattered snow and rain showers Friday

We’ll remain chilly into the weekend

hazards
Winter weather advisories for northern Minnesota Friday
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via Pivotal Weather

Updated 9:30 a.m.

Snow and rain showers will continue to rotate around a slowly moving low across northern Minnesota. Temperatures will remain cold in the 30s and low 40s with blustery northwest winds at 10-20 mph. The chill persists into the weekend.

Snow, rain showers spin around stubborn low

It’s day three of cool, wet, windy weather as our slowly moving storm system persists in the region. Clouds, snow and rain showers are rotating a nearly stationary low centered in northern Minnesota Friday:

sat loop
Satellite loop imagery showing low center in northern Minnesota and moisture rotating around it Friday
College of DuPage weather lab

We’ve seen quite a bit of new snow in northern Minnesota with up to 15 inches in Silver Bay and Hovland along the North Shore. Several other spots saw 6 to 8 inches.

snow totals
Snowfall totals reported through 9 a.m.
National Weather Service

We’ve seen lots of rainfall in southern Minnesota. The liquid equivalent is keeping river levels very high for the time being.

72 hour precip
Estimated precipitation totals over the past 72 hours
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

Look for snow to continue in northern Minnesota and in southern Minnesota where we’ll see occasional peeks of sun and brief snow bursts that could mix with rain in the afternoon. These form similarly to thunderstorms but on a more shallow (and colder) scale.

fri-sat precip 9
Forecast precipitation 9 a.m. Friday through 6 p.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Pivotal Weather

Additional snowfall can be expected mainly in northern Minnesota, but even in the south a brief, patchy coating of snow is possible in some of the more intense snow bursts.

Since the snow and rain showers in southern Minnesota are fueled by even brief peeks of sun, they will diminish after dark Friday evening.

MN snow
Forecast additional snowfall Friday into Friday night
National Weather Service

It will remain blustery with northwest winds at 10-20 mph through the day into Saturday.

Chilly, drier through the weekend

We’ll still have some flurries in northern Minnesota especially Saturday and Sunday. Look for mostly cloudy skies statewide Saturday but more sunshine should appear Sunday. High temperatures will be about 10 to 20 degrees colder than normal in the 30s and low 40s Saturday.

sat hi 9
Forecast highs Saturday
National Weather Service

Sunday will be slightly warmer with more widespread 40s in the south but still in the 30s in northern Minnesota.

sun hi 9
Forecast highs Sunday
National Weather Service

Importantly, we should have an overall dry stretch into next week with just isolated shower chances possible midweek. Temperatures should modify to closer to normal as well in the 50s south and 40s north.

tue hi 9
Forecast highs Tuesday
National Weather Service

Despite the cold weather, we’re still running ahead of normal overall for April. Many want warm weather so desperately that we forget the colder weather (and snow in April) is more typical than the hotter weather we had last week.

Take a look at how our cold temperatures early in the month and recently compare to the ‘heat wave’ of last week:

APR t anom
Daily temperature anomalies (difference from normal) for the Twin Cities so far in April
Sven Sundgaard, National Weather Service data

The heat last week was about twice as far from normal as our cold temperatures have been below normal.