Snow develops Thursday into Thursday night with a larger weekend storm incoming

Updated 9:15 a.m.

Snow will develop west and expand east by Thursday evening and overnight. Friday will be mostly dry before more snow develops late Saturday into Sunday.

First of two systems arrives Thursday 

The first of two snow-producing systems arrives late Thursday. A winter weather advisory is posted for later in the day Thursday into Thursday night and early Friday for much of central and southeastern Minnesota into western Wisconsin. 

Light snow will develop in western Minnesota and expand east through the day, reaching eastern Minnesota by evening. The snow will be a relatively quick shot in the overnight hours, wrapping up by early Friday.

A wide area of snowfall will occur across central and southeastern Minnesota primarily. 

There is still some variation in the various forecast computer model scenarios for snowfall output. We will watch to see if some potentially heavier bands of 4 to 5, even 6 inch amounts are possible in central and southeastern Minnesota.

While we have one eye on Thursday’s system, we have another on a bigger, potentially more aggressive storm that will start late Saturday and come in two waves into Tuesday. 

Complicating the second system will be warmer air arriving Monday, which will turn some snow to rain in portions of southern and southeastern Minnesota. This could have a big impact on snow totals and determining where the heaviest amounts will fall.

Regardless of whether we see rain or not Monday into Tuesday, significant snow is still likely to fall. The probability of more than 6 inches (winter storm criteria) is likely for much of southern Minnesota.

While our forecast models vary on where the heaviest snow will fall, they all agree on significant snowfall totals.

Pictured below are forecasts for 24-hour snowfall totals from Sunday into early Monday, one of the heavier periods of snowfall. Keep in mind there will likely be additional rain and snow totals later Monday into Tuesday.

If you’re looking for a return to spring temperatures, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model offers some hope by the end of next week. It’s an outlier right now, but pushes temperatures to near 60 degrees in southern Minnesota.

This will all depend on how much snow falls and where, however. You can see the variations in the temperatures based on this possibility already: