Winter storm watch expanded for Friday evening through Saturday evening
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The National Weather Service has expanded the winter storm watch that starts on Friday to cover more of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:
The watch begins Friday afternoon in parts of central Minnesota, and it begins Friday evening in the Twin Cities metro area.
Watch details:
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
344 AM CDT Thu Apr 12 2018
...SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM POSSIBLE FRIDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
SATURDAY EVENING...
.A significant winter storm is expected Friday afternoon into
Saturday evening and will likely include all precipitation types,
strong winds, and blizzard conditions. A Winter Storm Watch is in
effect for Friday afternoon and Saturday for much of central and
southern Minnesota and west central Wisconsin.
Rain and thunderstorms are expected to develop late Thursday
night and persist for much of the day Friday as temperatures
remain in the mid 30s in central Minnesota to the lower 40s along
the Minnesota Iowa border. Colder air will begin to move into
central Minnesota Friday afternoon and evening, changing the
precipitation to snow across central and western Minnesota. In
addition to the heavy snow, strong winds gusting between 40 to 50
mph will bring the possibility of blizzard conditions to west
central Minnesota. The best chance for whiteouts will be late
Friday night there. The rain will turn to a wintry mix of freezing
rain, sleet, and snow across south central and east central
Minnesota, and west central Wisconsin Friday evening, before
changing to all snow Saturday morning.
Total snow accumulations of 8 to 15 inches are possible across
central and west central Minnesota, with totals tapering off to 3
or 6 inches across south central Minnesota and west central
Wisconsin. Total ice and sleet accumulations of one to two tenths
of an inch are possible across the southern third of Minnesota
into west central Wisconsin.
MNZ060-062-063-067>070-074-075-082-WIZ023-025-027-121645-
/O.CON.KMPX.WS.A.0009.180414T0300Z-180415T0600Z/
Hennepin-Ramsey-Washington-Sibley-Carver-Scott-Dakota-Brown-
Nicollet-Watonwan-St. Croix-Dunn-Chippewa-
Including the cities of Minneapolis, St Paul, Stillwater,
Gaylord, Chaska, Shakopee, Hastings, New Ulm, St Peter, St James,
Hudson, Menomonie, and Chippewa Falls
344 AM CDT Thu Apr 12 2018
...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY EVENING
THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT...
* WHAT...Heavy mixed precipitation possible. Total snow
accumulations of 6 to 10 inches, and ice accumulations of one
tenth to two tenths of an inch are possible.
* WHERE...Portions of west central Wisconsin and central, east
central and south central Minnesota.
* WHEN...From Friday evening through late Saturday night.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Plan on difficult travel conditions. Tree
branches could fall. Winds gusting as high as 45 mph could
cause areas of blowing and drifting snow.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A Winter Storm Watch means there is potential for significant
snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel. Continue
to monitor the latest forecasts.
New computer model info will be coming in today, and forecast snow amounts will be adjusted, but here is the snow potential from Friday afternoon through Saturday:
A more detailed update will be posted later Thursday morning on the Updraft blog.
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