Mixed bag today, 70s on the horizon?

It's hard to be a weatherman in Minnesota. That's what makes it so challenging and fun.

Minnesota's weather separates the wheat from the chaff. Local weathercasters don't last too long on a steady diet of photos of cute kids and puppies. This is not San Diego. At some point you need to have some serious "weather game." The savvy and weather hungry Minnesota audience has an uncanny ability to detect who's got the goods.

Today's weather is a great example of why we say if you don't like the weather in Minnesota, just wait 15 minutes. Sunny peeks. Snow shower. Sleet pinging on your windshield. Rain shower.

The morning radar looked like an outbreak better diagnosed by the Centers for Disease Control.

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Morning radar shot via Weather Underground shows mixed snow, sleet and rain.

Expect our mixed bag of precipitation today to transition to all rain by around midday.

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Two distinct clippers ride through Minnesota in the next 48 hours. The first one blows through with a rainy mix today. The second and colder system brings more snow than rain tomorrow night into Thursday. The maps capture the progression.

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NOAA

Northland snow

Get ready for another shot of sloppy snow across northeastern Minnesota in Duluth, Hibbing, Ely, Tofte, Lutsen and Grand Marais.

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Is the Chocolate Moose open yet in Ely? A slice of warm pie a la mode sounds nice on a snowy April day. The Gunflint Tavern is a good spot to wait for spring with a view of the big water in Grand Marais. The Angry Trout awaits a summer culinary visit.

Alas, I digress. Even your local weatherman dreams of warmer days up north. Anybody hungry?

Cool bias continues this week

You knew we'd pay for our balmy March in Minnesota. Temperatures continue to run a good 5 to 10 degrees cooler than average this week. Mixed rain and snow today, again Thursday. All rain by Sunday. Here's a more detailed look at the forecast through Sunday.

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Weatherspark, NOAA GFS data

Average high this week in the metro? 53 degrees.

Tax day warm front?

Sometimes you look for a clear signal that seasons are about to change in Minnesota. For good. True spring may be just around the next corner.

The longer range maps suggest a serious warm front just after April 15. By next weekend April 16-17, a major shift in the upper winds suggests a much warmer and potentially thundery air mass across the Upper Midwest.

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NOAA

If the pattern verifies, we transition from a cool wet bias to a warm wet bias late next week. Translation? April showers with a side of (severe?) thunderstorms. NOAA's Global Forecast System model cranks out a string of highs in the 60s and 70s in about two weeks.

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NOAA via IPS Meteostar

Stay tuned, and get the boat spruced up.