Northern Minnesota is under a new alert until Friday at 7 p.m.

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Temperatures will vary greatly from south to north Friday. The first round of wintry precipitation will affect northern Minnesota Friday and the rest of the state Saturday into early Sunday.

Two messy rounds of wintry precipitation after a warm Friday 

The first round of wintry precipitation will continue to affect far northern Minnesota Friday morning and expand to include much of northeast Minnesota, including Duluth and the North Shore. 

Rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow showers are all likely by late Friday. Up to several inches could fall along the international border. Note thunderstorm development by the evening and overnight potentially in southern Minnesota ahead of a cold front. 

Meanwhile, in southern Minnesota it will feel like summer south of a warm front that will bring afternoon highs into the 70s and 80s as far north as the Twin Cities potentially. 

Ice accumulation will become a concern for portions of northern Minnesota Friday into early Saturday with this first round of moisture. 

Thunderstorms will be possible this evening into the overnight for southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. A marginal risk (level 1 of 5) of severe storms is forecast with the main threat being large hail. 

A second disturbance then brings rain showers to central and southern Minnesota Saturday. The rain will turn to a wintry mix of rain, sleet and freezing rain and then to snow Saturday evening and overnight. 

This is when we could get slushy snowfall in central Minnesota and up the North Shore. Anywhere from a coating to more than several inches is possible. 

There’s also the potential for ice accumulation in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin Saturday evening and overnight as we transition through all the precipitation types to snow:

Behind the system it will be colder Sunday into much of next week with temperatures slightly below normal. 

We may also be dealing with more snow again Tuesday night into Wednesday and that’s no April Fool’s joke!  

Sven Sundgaard

Author

Temperatures will vary greatly from south to north Friday. The first round of wintry precipitation will affect northern Minnesota Friday and the rest of the state Saturday into early Sunday. 

Complicated weekend forecast with two rounds of wintry precipitation

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