Windy and cooler Thursday, significant snow Saturday

Blustery northwest winds are moving in Thursday behind Wednesday night’s disturbance. A significant snowfall is headed for central Minnesota Saturday. 

Windy Thursday; significant snow on track for Saturday 

Behind our most recent snowfall, blustery winds will howl across the state Thursday. Northwest winds will blow at 15 to 30 mph with gusts as high as 40 mph to even 50 mph in spots. 

The gusts have prompted a wind advisory (shaded brown on the map below) for much of central and southern Minnesota into western Wisconsin Thursday.

Temperatures will remain pretty steady or even fall in central and northern Minnesota. Southern Minnesota will see temperatures warm to near 30 degrees briefly. 

Overnight lows will fall to subzero readings across the northern half of the state with single digits in southern Minnesota.

Friday will be fairly quiet, but clouds will increase late Friday ahead of the next potentially significant storm system. Snow will develop late Friday night into Saturday with the heaviest falling midday Saturday across central Minnesota.

Snowfall totals could be the highest we’ve seen in central and southern Minnesota this winter season yet. St. Cloud could see more than 6 inches of snow.

We’ll need to keep a close eye on forecast model runs Thursday. Some models have trended a bit north overnight with lower moisture totals. For example, here’s a loop of the five most recent model runs for the European model from 12 a.m. Wednesday through 12 a.m. Thursday:

A winter storm watch is posted for Friday night into Saturday for central Minnesota.

Behind the storm will come colder air for Sunday into early next week.