Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Weekend weather: Warm and breezy; shower chance on Sunday

Highest wind gusts on Sunday

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Thursday at Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis
Ron Trenda/MPR News

Thursday’s high temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 59 degrees. That’s the average Twin Cities high temperature on April 20. Friday highs will also reach the 50s in the metro area and much of Minnesota with even warmer temps expected this weekend.

Weekend temps.

The average Twin Cities high temperature is 35 degrees on March 2. Metro area highs are expected to reach the lower 60s this Saturday. The Twin Cities record high for March 2 is 54 degrees.

Saturday afternoon highs will range from 30s in northwestern Minnesota to lower 60s in southern Minnesota:

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Saturday forecast highs
National Weather Service

Central Minnesota will see a lot of 50s.

Sunday high temps will range from 40s in far northern Minnesota to lower 70s in southeastern Minnesota:

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Sunday forecast highs
National Weather Service

The Twin Cities record high for March 3 is 65 degrees. That record is in jeopardy Sunday.

Sunday will be the windiest day of the weekend, with wind gusts of 25 to 40 mph:

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Sunday noon forecast wind gusts
National Weather Service

Snow depths

Most of Minnesota has little or no snow on the ground right now. There’s some decent snow snow cover in portions of northern Minnesota.

Here’s the latest Minnesota snow depth map, from the Minnesota State Climatology Office:

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Minnesota snow depth
Minnesota State Climatology Office

The areas that are shaded yellow have snow depths of 2 to 4 inches, with 4 to 8 inches of snow cover in the areas that are shaded green.

Weekend precipitation chances

Saturday looks dry in most of Minnesota. Parts of northwestern Minnesota could see a wintry mix Saturday and Saturday night.

Scattered rain showers are possible in Minnesota and western Wisconsin on Sunday, with larger areas of rain or a mix in northwestern Minnesota. Portions of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin could see a thunderstorm Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Sunday:

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Simulated radar from 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Sunday
NOAA, via Tropicaltidbits.com

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

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.