Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend weather: 40s return; breezy Saturday afternoon

Dry Saturday and Sunday in most of Minnesota

I’ll get to the Saturday and Sunday weather details after a quick update on our Friday afternoon weather.

Lake-enhanced snow contines into Friday afternoon in a portion of northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin:

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Friday afternoon snow outlook
National Weather Service

Parts of central and southern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin could see a passing light snow shower or flurry Friday afternoon.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News network

Snow depths

The Thursday snow depth report from the Minnesota State Climatology Office indicated little or no snow cover over most of Minnesota:

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Minnesota snow depth
Minnesota State Climatology Office

The green-shaded areas of northeastern Minnesota have between 4 and 8 inches of snow cover, with 2 to 4 inches in the portions of northern Minnesota that are shaded yellow.

Weekend temperature outlook

Saturday morning low temperatures will be in the teens across much of Minnesota:

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Saturday morning forecast lows
National Weather Service

Parts of northeastern Minnesota will see Saturday morning lows in the single digits.

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 32 degrees on Feb. 24. The Twin Cities metro area and much of Minnesota will top out in the 40s Saturday afternoon, with 50s in west-central and southwestern Minnesota:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

There will be some 30s in northeastern Minnesota.

Saturday will be a bit breezy, with afternoon wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph:

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Saturday 3 p.m. forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Back to temperatures, Sunday highs will be in the 40s across central and southern Minnesota plus western Wisconsin:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Sunday highs are expected to be in the 30s across roughly the northern third of Minnesota. A few spots in far southwestern Minnesota could touch 50 degrees Sunday afternoon.

Dry weekend

It’s expected to be a dry weekend for most of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Some spots in far northern Minnesota could see a sprinkle or a flurry Saturday night.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 6 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday:

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Simulated radar from 6 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

The solid black lines in the loop are isobars, which depict locations with a specific atmospheric pressure. When isobars are closer together the winds are stronger than when the isobars are more spread out. Winds will be stronger on Saturday than on Sunday.

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.