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Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News
Paul Huttner

Wintry breezes now; 40 again by Friday?

Go Deeper.

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A Decembery breeze blows across Minnesota Monday. The icy winds spawn occasional snow showers. The big lakes in southern Minnesota still sport open water, but smaller bays and ponds are iced over.

Here's a look at a frozen, snow-streaked Excelsior Bay next to a wide-open main Lake Minnetonka Monday morning.

11 26 may
The view of Lake Minnetonka from Excelsior via Maynard's web cam.

Sketchy ice

My friends in Chanhassen report 3.5 inches of ice on the pond last weekend. It's still too sketchy for pond hockey here, but we're making ice this week.

Here's your annual reminder of what you need for relatively safe ice activities. Remember local conditions like springs and channels produce big variations in ice thickness. I've seen open channels within a few feet of foot-thick of ice.

Making ice

Temperatures hover in the teens and 20s Monday and Tuesday. Milder Pacific air blows in again late this week. We topped out at 46 on Black Friday in the Twin Cities and hit 40 last Saturday. The Twin Cities and southern Minnesota have a shot at 40-degrees again by this Friday.

11 26 ww
NOAA forecast temp for Minneapolis via Weather Bell.

Light snow Wednesday-Thursday

A minor system appears on track to deliver some light snow late Wednesday into Thursday. It's still early, but many models suggest 1 to 3-inches for much of Minnesota by Thursday afternoon.

11 26 snow
Canadian GEM model snowfall output by 6 pm Thursday via tropical tidbits.

Iowa to Chicago: Heavy snow

Sunday's major early-season snow system dumped as much as 17 inches of snow in southeastern Iowa. Note the incredibly sharp snowfall cutoff near Des Moines, Iowa.

11 26 lsr_snowfall
Snowfall totals via Iowa Emergency management.

Northern Illinois and southeast Wisconsin including the Chicago area also got pummeled with high winds and snow.

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