Saturday night snow or mix; cooler on Sunday

The snow isn’t over yet.

Snow was falling across much of Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin at 6 p.m. Saturday, and it will linger into Saturday night. Some areas were also reporting a bit of freezing drizzle. The next batch of snow (and possibly some patchy freezing drizzle) moves into the Twin Cities metro area and parts of southeastern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin Saturday evening, then tapers off from west to east later Saturday night.

A winter weather advisory continues until 8 p.m. this Saturday evening for Koochiching & Itasca County plus northern Aitkin county. Those areas could see an additional inch of snow plus patchy freezing drizzle. A winter weather advisory continues Saturday evening and until 6 a.m. Sunday in northeastern Minnesota:

Here are details of the winter weather advisory:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Duluth MN 250 PM CST Sat Jan 6 2024 MNZ011-012-019-037-070900- /O.CON.KDLH.WW.Y.0001.000000T0000Z-240107T1200Z/ North St. Louis-Northern Cook and Lake-Central St. Louis- Carlton and South St. Louis- Including the cities of Ely, Isabella, Hibbing, and Duluth 250 PM CST Sat Jan 6 2024 ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST SUNDAY... * WHAT...Mixed precipitation. Additional snow accumulations of one to two inches and ice accumulations of a light glaze. The freezing drizzle will be more likely along the Iron Range and south. * WHERE...North St. Louis, Northern Cook and Lake, Central St. Louis and Carlton and South St. Louis Counties. This includes the Tribal Lands of the Fond du Lac Band and the Bois Forte Band, Lake Vermilion and, Nett Lake areas. * WHEN...Until 6 AM CST Sunday. * IMPACTS...Plan on slippery road conditions. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Slow down and use caution while traveling. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5 1 1. Road conditions can also be found at 511mn.org for Minnesota or 511wi.gov for Wisconsin.

Generally one inch or less of snow is expected Saturday evening and overnight Saturday night across central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Parts of southeastern Minnesota could see a coating to one-half inch of snow.

You can hear updated weather information for Minnesota and western Wisconsin on the MPR News network. 

Updated forecast information will be posted by the National Weather Service offices in the Twin Cities, Duluth, and La Crosse, Wis.

Minnesota road conditions can be found here. Wisconsin road conditions can be found here.

Snow reports

As expected, our weekend snow totals have been highest in northern Minnesota. Snow reports received through Saturday morning indicated 4.5 inches near Hovland and Grand Marais in northeastern Minnesota.

Here are weekend snow totals from the CoCoRaHS network, which were reported Saturday morning:

If you go to the linked CoCoRaHS site, you can zoom to the desired location and you can use “map options” to plot snowfall. Many observers take snow measurements in the morning, so additional snow reports, which include Saturday afternoon and evening snow amounts, are expected Sunday morning.

Monday snow

The next weather system could spread meaningful snow into parts of Nebraska, Iowa, eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota on Monday:

A winter storm watch begins at 11 p.m. Sunday and runs until 6 a.m. Tuesday for portions of several states:

Rock County of far southwestern Minnesota is included in the winter storm watch.

Temperature trends

Cooler air arrives Saturday night, so Sunday daytime highs will be mainly in the 20s:

Northwestern and north-central Minnesota will have Sunday highs in the teens.

Monday highs range from teens in far northwestern Minnesota to 30s in the Twin Cities and southeastern Minnesota:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 30 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by lower 20s on Thursday and teens on Friday.

Below-normal temps could then linger through next weekend and into the start of the following week. Here’s the Jan. 12 through Jan. 16 temperature outlook from the NWS Climate Prediction Center:

We’ll need our warmest coat and gloves for the wintry blast that’s coming.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on MPR News at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:39 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.