Storm Ramps Up
Some interesting trends this afternoon with our first big winter storm of the season.
Snow Trends:
Good snow now across most of Minnesota, stretching all the way from the Canadian border to south of the metro, where it changes to sleet and freezing rain. 3 inches of SLEET has fallen at Albert Lea, and freezing rain has been coming down for the past two hours at Rochester. Roads are no doubt icy along the I-90 corridor and in much of southern Minnesota. They will stay that way thorugh this evening at least.
At 2pm Deephaven in the West Metro has 3.3" on the ground, and Eden Prairie has 3.6". Check the latest snow totals from NWS below.
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Snowfall Rates:
At 2pm moderate snow is falling in the metro with visibilities of between 1/2 and 1/4 mile at times. There will be little lulls and bursts in snowfall intensity as is common in winter storms. At these visibilities, snowfall rates in the metro should be between 1/2 and 1 inch per hour through 5pm tonight.
Latest Minnseota hourly roundup
Dry Slot:
There is a little wedge of drier air punching into west central MN. This has shut off the snow in places like Marshall and Redwood Falls west of the metro. As this drier punch move in this evening, we may see the snow let up between 5 and 7pm.
Overall I' think we're still on track with 5" to isolated 10" totals in most of the metro. The heaviest totals may be in the south and east metro. There is already 3" down in much of the metro at 2pm, so if we can hold the snow through 7pm at least we should end up there.
If you have snow totals please send them along to me at weather@mpr.org.
Let it snow!
PH