Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Winter storm watch for much of Minnesota Friday night and Saturday

Latest forecast models show a faster storm that could produce a little less snow

Winter storm watch
Winter storm watch
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

We’re still on track for snowfall across most of central and southern Minnesota Friday night into Saturday morning.

Winter storm watches include most of central and southern Minnesota Friday night into Saturday. (Check out the map above.)

The latest forecast models bring snow into Minnesota Friday night and put most of the snow down overnight ending Saturday morning from west to east.

Here’s the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s FV3 model between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday:

NOAA FV3 model
Finite­-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core model output between 6 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday
NOAA, via Tropical Tidbits

Thursday’s forecast model trends suggest a faster-moving storm that may drop a little less snow on much of Minnesota. But it still looks quite plowable for the Twin Cities and much of central Minnesota.

NOAA suggests a high probability for at least 4 inches of snow across south-central Minnesota, including the Twin Cities area.

Snowfall probability
Snowfall probability for 4 inches of snow
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

Here’s the latest snowfall output from NOAA:

Snowfall projection for Minnesota
Snowfall projection for Minnesota
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

Additional model runs on Thursday night and Friday could still produce forecast changes. Let’s see how they handle the system before the snow starts to fly.

Stay tuned.