Searching for sunshine; milder into the weekend
Still watching rain and possible snow chances next week
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If Ralph Lauren had a pallet for Minnesota this time of year it would almost certainly include November Gray. Not sure it would be his most popular color.
Our gray skies shift to a more cherry blue over the next few days. We could see a little fog early Friday morning.
I’m hopeful for some sunny hours on Friday, but a few models keep a stubborn low cloud deck over Minnesota Friday. NOAA’s GFS model is among the most optimistic for Friday sunshine.
Highs on Friday will run in the 40s north to 50s south.
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Saturday looks like the mildest day of the weekend. But it comes with a gusty south wind to 25 mph. Highs will rise into the 50s across most of Minnesota on Saturday.
Sunday brings our next cool front with 40s edging south.
Rain to snow next week?
Next week is winter weather awareness week in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Good timing.
Forecast models crank up a potent low-pressure system and slam it into Minnesota from the south late Monday into Tuesday. The good news? Widespread rainfall is likely Monday night and Tuesday.
The potentially wintry news is cold air will feed into the backside of the system and probably change rain to snow. There are still large model variations in where snow could fall next week. The latest European model favors mostly rain for Minnesota with significant snow in the Dakotas.
The Canadian model is more bullish for snow across Minnesota by Wednesday. Here’s the Canadian model output between noon Monday and noon Thursday next week.
The American model is in between, with rain to some lighter snow in Minnesota.
The good news is the system looks likely to bring widespread 1 to more than 2 inches of moisture next week.
Every model solution comes with bracing north winds and much colder temperatures next week.
We typically see forecast model consensus grow in the 72 hours leading up to the storm event.
Let’s see where we are by this weekend. This could be a pile of snow for parts of Minnesota or a wind-driven lighter nuisance snow on the backside of the system.
Stay tuned.