Severe storms are rolling through central Minnesota including the Twin Cities

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We’re tracking the first of two snow systems across Minnesota this week.

Wednesday’s system favors significant snowfall accumulations across central and northern Minnesota. The Twin Cities and southern Minnesota will pick up lighter snow showers through Wednesday night. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model seems to have a pretty good handle on snowfall coverage and timing through Thursday morning. 

The forecast model loop below runs between 5 p.m. Wednesday and 5 a.m. Thursday. See how most of the steadier snow favors northern Minnesota with the Twin Cities on the southern edge?

NOAA’s FV3 model shows the likely accumulation with less than an inch around most of the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota. Several inches of snow are likely across the north:

 cover most of northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin into Thursday morning. 

Wednesday midday forecast model runs are still on track for a bigger snow system Saturday. This one looks like it could deliver major winter storm conditions to much of central and southern Minnesota including the greater Twin Cities area Saturday. 

NOAA’s Global Forecast System model is consistent with others that show the bulk of the storm tracking across central and southern Minnesota Saturday. The forecast model loop below runs between 12:01 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday. 

It still looks likely this system will lay down a swath of between 5 and 10 inches in the sweet spot of the storm. Right now models favor that zone covering central into southern Minnesota. 

Here’s NOAA’s Global Forecast System 24-hour snowfall output through all of Saturday:

We’re now less than 60 hours from the onset of snowfall so forecast confidence is growing.

Stay tuned as we watch for model changes in the coming days. 

Paul Huttner

Author

The weather maps are more active across Minnesota this week.

Snowfall projection for northeast Minnesota 

Heaviest snow Wednesday north of Twin Cities; bigger storm likely Saturday

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