Sunday shower chance highest in S. Minn.; Flakes and rain in some areas Monday

Much of Minnesota will have a dry Easter Sunday afternoon and evening. Some locations will see some rain or a rain/snow mix.

Patchy light snow showers and flurries could continue into early Sunday afternoon from Brainerd to Moose Lake and into far northwestern Wisconsin. Duluth could see a passing flurry.

A developing low pressure system over the Rockies will spread moisture over Iowa and southern portions of Minnesota and Wisconsin today into Monday.

Rain or a rain/snow mix will spread from southwestern Minnesota eastward Sunday afternoon, changing to mainly rain by mid and late afternoon. The southern two or three tiers of Minnesota counties will have the best chance of Sunday afternoon precipitation, but some scattered showers are possible from west-central Minnesota through the Twin Cities metro and into west-central Wisconsin later in the afternoon and into Sunday evening.

Another round of precipitation moves in Sunday night and continues into Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale Forecast System model shows the potential precipitation pattern from 6 p.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday:

NOAA’s Finite Volume Cubed-Sphere (FV3) forecast model shows a similar precipitation pattern over the southern third of Minnesota plus southern Wisconsin:

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, La Crosse, Wis.,  and Sioux Falls, S.D..

Temperature trends

Sunday highs will be in the 40s across much of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Parts of far northern Minnesota will have Sunday highs in the 30s.

Monday high temps will be mainly in the 40s, with some 30s in northeastern Minnesota:

The average Twin Cities high temp is 50 degrees on April 1, so Monday’s metro area highs will be a few degrees cooler than normal.

Tuesday high temps will also be mainly in the 40s, with some 30s in northeastern Minnesota:

Twin Cities metro area highs are projected to be around 50 degrees on Wednesday, followed by lower 50s Thursday then upper 50s on Friday. Some forecast models show Twin Cities metro area highs in the 60s next weekend.

Above-normal temps could then linger into the following week. The NWS Climate Prediction Center shows above-normal temps in Minnesota and Wisconsin from April 7 through April 13:

Weather nuggets

Despite several cool days in the second half of March, the average Twin Cities temperature is running 4.2 degrees warmer than normal this March.

The average monthly temperature is the average of all the daily high temps and low temps. This will be the eleventh consecutive warmer than normal month in the Twin Cities.

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.