Weekend weather: Unusually warm; much less snow cover than last year
When will we see some sunshine?
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Yes, we're in a snow drought.
The 2023-24 season snowfall total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport sits at just 7.3 inches right now. That’s 20.7 inches below the average Twin Cities season snowfall total through Jan. 25. The Twin Cities season snowfall total was 53.3 inches through Jan. 25 last year.
Snow depths are very low across most of Minnesota. Here’s the latest Minnesota snow depth map, from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:
Most of Minnesota has less than 4 inches of snow on the ground and many locations have less than 2 inches of snow cover. The darkest brown area on the map indicates snow depths between zero and 1 inch. The small areas on the map that are shaded blue have 8 inches or more of snow cover.
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Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport reports just a trace of snow cover.
One year ago, the official Twin Cities snow depth was 10 inches, and almost the entire state had 8 inches or more of snow cover:
The purple shades indicate 18 inches or more of snow cover in northeastern Minnesota one year ago.
Weekend temperatures
Our unusual January warmth continues this weekend.
The average Twin Cities low temperature is 8 degrees on Jan. 27. Metro area lows will be around 30 degrees Saturday morning.
Much of Minnesota will see Saturday morning lows in the 20s, with upper teens in far northwestern Minnesota:
The average Twin Cities high temperature is 24 degrees on Jan. 27. Metro area highs will reach the mid to upper 30s this Saturday.
Saturday high temps will be in the 30s across most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:
Sunday morning low temps will be mainly in the 20s, with a few pockets of upper teens in western Minnesota and in parts of northeastern Minnesota:
Sunday highs will be in the 30s:
Any weekend sunshine?
Western Minnesota appears to have the best chance of seeing sunshine on Saturday. Some of that sunshine could spread eastward during the afternoon. I’d say that the Twin Cities metro area could see a few glimpses of sun Saturday afternoon.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential cloud coverage from 7 a.m. Saturday to 5 p.m. Saturday:
Western Minnesota has a good chance to see some sunshine on Sunday, and the NAM model shows pockets of sunshine developing over eastern Minnesota Sunday afternoon:
It sure would be nice to see the sun!
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.