Milder today; Rain tonight & Friday AM & Sat; S-N-O-W Monday?

Narrow escape on 3rd consecutive hard freeze for much of southern MN this morning

34 degrees low this morning at MSP Airport

41.6 degrees at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis at 7:57 am

60s today in southern MN & the metro

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Rain showers and spotty thunder moves in tonight from west to east

After midnight - best chance for rain in the metro

Wet AM commute Friday in the metro

Rain chances again Saturday & Saturday night

Snow possible Monday??

Well above freezing in the "urban core" at Target Field this morning.

Source: Weather Bug

"Houdini hard freeze escape" today:

Harry would have been proud.

There was just enough light breeze to keep temps from falling into the mid 20s for several hours this morning. In fact, mush of the inner core of the metro stayed above freezing this morning. MSP bottomed out at 34 degrees. It was 33 at St. Paul and an even 32 in Eden Prairie.

Thurday morning lows

Source: NWS

Temps are warming quickly today under a stong sun and should reach the lower 60s in southern Minnesota today...with 50s up north.

Wanted: Rainfall

It looks promising for at least some decent rainfall tonight and Friday in Minnesota. It's raining in Nebraska and South Dakota this morning, and that wave of rain showers will push east into southwest Minnesota this afternoon and evening. Look for an arc of scattered showers to approach the metro after midnight, and rain should linger into Friday morning in the south, and Friday afternoon up north.

The GFS prints out about .30" of rain for the metro with the more aggressive NAM cranking out about .54".

Source: ISU

Bring it on!

Second wave Saturday & Saturday night?

A second system could trigger more showers and some thunder Saturday & Saturday night. If we're lucky, we may get some decent downpours.

decent soaking rains by Sunday?

Source: wxcaster.com

Severe risk south?

SPC brings a slight risk right up to the MN/IA border Saturday and a moderate risk for Oklahoma and Kansas. We could see a significant severe outbreak in the central plains into Iowa Saturday.

Source: NOAA/SPC

Monday SNOW: Are you kidding me?

Nope!

The GFS is adamant that another, colder low pressure system will spin north Monday, and temps will be borderline cold enough for a cold rain....or a wet snow.

Source: ISU

At this point I'll leave it to others to go screaming with headlines about accumulation, but a decent slushy April coating of white is not out of the question Monday in the metro and central Minnesota.

Source: wxcaster.com

This shouldn't be a big shocker, the metro averages 3.1" of snow in a "typical" April.

As we say in the weather biz...stay tuned!

PH