Cooler Wednesday ahead of snow Thursday

Enjoy a dry day with a mix of clouds and sun Wednesday. It will be cooler than the last couple of days. Snow develops late Wednesday night into Thursday for much of the state. 

Cooler, brighter Wednesday; snow develops for Thursday 

Southwestern Minnesota picked up a fresh inch or two of snow Tuesday. Only a dusting made it to the Twin Cities by the evening hours.

Temperatures will be cooler Wednesday across the state with quite the temperature contrast from northwest to southeast. Northwestern Minnesota will see highs in the single digits while southeastern Minnesota will warm into the low to mid-20s. 

We should have a mix of clouds and sun allowing for a brighter day overall. There will also be scattered flurries. Clouds quickly move in Wednesday night with snow showers developing west late and spreading east early Thursday.

Much of the state will see snow showers most of Thursday.

This still looks like the more significant snowfall of the week and our last best bet of pulling off a white Christmas in the Twin Cities and central Minnesota into western Wisconsin. 

We should see snow by the early morning hours Thursday in the Twin Cities with already 1 or 2 inches by 6 a.m. and an additional 2 to 3 during the day.

The heaviest snow looks to fall between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday in the Twin Cities metro with one-half inch to 1 inch per hour rates potentially.

Here’s a low-end and high-end snowfall scenario from the pile of forecast models:

We’ll need to continue to monitor forecast models Wednesday.

While the snow flies Thursday high temperatures will be in the 20s and low 30s for southern Minnesota, which is ideal for salt to work on treated and plowed roadways. It will be significantly colder in northwestern Minnesota.

Behind the system it will be colder for Friday and Saturday with highs in the teens for southern Minnesota and just single digits north. Overnight lows will be below zero for the northern half of the state.

After that, next week looks mild with highs in the 30s returning to much of the state even up north. In fact, southern Minnesota could see highs near 40 by late next week.

The graphic below shows a blend of the models (a sort of weighted average forecast) for Twin Cities area high and low temperatures next week.

Enjoy that snow, because we’ll lose a fair chunk of it next week but should hold onto it for a white Christmas.