Monday Winter Storm Watch details

Still plenty of lead time here, but here's another heads up on Monday's snow potential.

There are plenty of still unanswerable questions on precise storm track and temperature profile (precip type) at this point, but the overall notion of the most significant snowfall of the season so far looks solid for Monday, Monday night intro Tuesday morning.

I'm not 100% sold that the NWS 7" to 11" range will land in the metro just yet, but this system is capable of some heavy snowfall totals and will definitely impact travel across a big chunk of Minnesota Monday into Tuesday at least morning.

Winter storm watches have been hoisted for Monday for the Twin Cities and all of southwest Minnesota.

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1128 ww

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MADISON...BENSON...MONTEVIDEO...WILLMAR...LITCHFIELD...MONTICELLO...MINNEAPOLIS...BLAINE... ST. PAUL...STILLWATER...GRANITE FALLS...OLIVIA...HUTCHINSON... GAYLORD...CHASKA...SHAKOPEE...HASTINGS...REDWOOD FALLS... NEW ULM...ST. PETER...LE SUEUR...FARIBAULT...ST. JAMES... MANKATO...WASECA...OWATONNA...FAIRMONT...BLUE EARTH...ALBERT LEA

329 PM CST SAT NOV 28 2015

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY MORNING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY MORNING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

* SNOW IS POSSIBLE FROM MONDAY MORNING THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

* SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN VISIBILITY ARE POSSIBLE.

* TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 7 TO 10 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE.

* THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR DIFFICULT DRIVING CONDITIONS... INCLUDING DURING THE EVENING COMMUTE ON MONDAY.

Here's a graphic look at the inbound low pressure system. This one looks wet, and just cold enough for a wintry mix to mostly heavy wet snowfall for those under the eventual heavy snow bands.

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NOAA

The models continue to crank out some pretty impressive snowfall totals. The NAM model from Saturday night's run is among the most aggressive.

1128 ww3
NOAA via wxcaster.com

Let's see where we are in another 24 hours well before the snow flies.

I'll have another update late Sunday as the models come into (hopefully) clearer focus. For now the need to know essentials are to prepare for significant and probably plowable snow and affected commutes for Monday PM rush hour and Tuesday.

December (and meteorological winter) still looks mild overall, but "mild" in winter can mean sloppy in Minnesota.

Stay tuned.