A windy Sunday afternoon; we saw the lowest amount of Autumn sunshine since 1983
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
I heard a symphony of snow shovels, snow blowers and windchimes in my neighborhood this Sunday morning.
The accumulating snow has now ended in the Twin Cities metro area, but we could see a passing flurry this afternoon.
Some snow showers are possible this afternoon in southeastern Minnesota and over the border into southwestern Wisconsin.
Here's NOAA's North American Mesoscale forecast model depiction of the potential snow pattern Sunday afternoon and evening:
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of snow.
It'll be a windy Sunday afternoon, with gusts to about 35 mph possible across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
You can check for forecast updates this afternoon from the NWS offices in the Twin Cities, and La Crosse, WI.
As always, updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and you will also see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Some roads will remain slippery this afternoon and evening.
Updated road conditions will be posted by the Minnesota and Wisconsin Transportation Departments.
Snow tally
The official Saturday snow tally at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 2.3 inches. It has snowed a bit since midnight, so the weekend snow total will go up slightly.
The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen reported 4.6 inches. I measured 3.5 inches in St. Paul. Meteorologist Bill Endersen reported 3 inches in Minneapolis.
A couple of the higher weekend snow totals received so far are 10.2 inches in Madelia (Watonwan county) and 9 inches in Winnebago (Faribault county). Windom saw 8.3 inches of weekend snow, and Albert Lea and Waterville both received 8.1 inches of snow. Mankato measured 8 inches of new snow this weekend, while Rochester came in with a total of 7.1 inches.
You can check snow accumulations for Minnesota and western Wisconsin as they're posted by the NWS. Hover over any location on the NWS snow map to see the snow total and the time of observation.
Some observations on the NWS map are from Saturday afternoon, so those observations do not include snow totals for the entire weekend.
By late Sunday, you may have to hit the "last 48 hours" tab in the upper left of the NWS map to see the Saturday afternoon snow reports.
Here's a partial list of weekend snow reports that was posted by the NWS Sunday morning:
Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN
926 AM CST Sun Dec 2 2018
...SNOWFALL REPORTS...
Location Amount Time/Date
Madelia 10.2 in 0914 AM 12/02
Winnebago 9.0 in 0911 AM 12/02
Waterville 8.1 in 0842 AM 12/02
Mankato 8.0 in 0620 AM 12/02
Albert Lea 7.8 in 0838 AM 12/02
Lakeville 7.5 in 0600 AM 12/02
New Ulm 3SE 4.7 in 0545 AM 12/02
2 W Prior Lake 4.5 in 0659 AM 12/02
Winthrop 4.0 in 0641 AM 12/02
Veseli 1W 3.5 in 0500 AM 12/02
Elk Mound 3.5 in 0836 AM 12/02
Richfield 1WNW 3.0 in 0400 AM 12/02
5 SSW Nye 2.8 in 0858 AM 12/02
New Hope 2S 2.6 in 0515 AM 12/02
Watertown 2.5 in 0500 AM 12/02
1 NNW North St. Paul 2.5 in 0800 AM 12/02
Coon Rapids 2.1 in 0838 AM 12/02
Kimball 3N 2.0 in 0600 AM 12/02
Red Wing 1.7 in 0600 AM 12/02
Observations are collected from a variety of sources with varying
equipment and exposures. We thank all volunteer weather observers
for their dedication. Not all data listed are considered official.
That's a pretty good snow event for the beginning of December!
Temperature trends
Most of Minnesota will see nearly steady or slowly falling temperatures Sunday afternoon.
Monday highs will be in the 20s:
Our average high temp is 32 degrees this time of year in the Twin Cities metro area.
It'll be a chilly week, with metro area highs in the lower 20s Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with middle 20s on Wednesday.
Where was that autumn sunshine?
If you're among the many people who felt that our autumn was much cloudier than normal, you'll be interested in this post from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:
September through November 2018 was quite gloomy across Minnesota. In fact, looking at solar radiation records at the U of M St. Paul Campus Climate Observatory it was the least sunny meteorological autumn since 1983.
If you're younger than 35 years old, you've never seen less sunshine during our meteorological autumn (September through November) than you saw in 2018.
You might impress your friends with that fact at your next party.
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.