Chilly through Friday; a little Saturday snow

Cold Canadian air blew into Minnesota Tuesday night and Wednesday for a brisk start to February.

Northwest winds were raw well into Wednesday, but most of the state got to enjoy the return of bright sunshine. Note, in the satellite photo below, our snow-covered lakes, recent snowfall in southeastern Minnesota and the patchy clouds in the northwest and southwest corners of the state.

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Visible satellite photo Monday afternoon. NOAA

Celestial treat this evening

Thanks to the mostly-clear skies, many of us will have the opportunity to enjoy a lovely sight in the west-southwestern sky this evening. Look in that direction a couple hours after sunset, once the sky is fully dark.

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First, spot brilliant Venus. Then you should be able to find much-dimmer Mars a bit up and to the left of Venus. Mars should appear slightly reddish through binoculars or a small telescope. Farther up and to the left of Mars will be the crescent moon.

If you have difficulty locating Mars, look for it along a line between Venus and the moon but slightly closer to Venus. That's what I really enjoy about astronomy -- it is so much easier to forecast than weather.

Chilly tonight and through Friday

Thanks to clear skies, that cold Canadian air and somewhat-lighter winds, temperatures will drop into the chilly range tonight. Low temperatures by sunrise on Thursday should be in the single digits in southern and central Minnesota while they bottom out in the negative singles in the north.

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Forecast low temperatures Wednesday night. Duluth National Weather Service

Thursday will remain on the raw side with high temperatures statewide in the upper single digits and mainly teens.

Dry weather here but very wet again in California

The next couple of days will remain dry across Minnesota. The story is very different, though, for northern California and Oregon. Storms that had soaked that area earlier in January have faded recently. Now more rounds of rain and snow are on their way from the Pacific Ocean. Forecast models are predicting more than five inches of precipitation over the next 48 hours in some locations in northern California. That means heavy snow for the mountains.

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Forecast precipitation for 48 hours ending at 6 p.m. Friday. NOAA Weather Prediction Center

Saturday snow

Milder air should arrive for the weekend and push many high temperatures into the 20s.

Possibly of greater interest for many is that forecast models continue to show the likelihood of light snow for Minnesota on Saturday. This will be a quick-hitting Alberta clipper storm system. Snowfall amounts probably will be in the range of just 1 to 3 inches, mainly across the northern half of the state. Snowfall will then race southeastward across northern and eastern Wisconsin Saturday night.

Storm early next week?

Forecast models want to bring us periods of snow early next week, probably in about the Monday-Tuesday time frame. Model runs have been quite inconsistent in the timing and shape of the storm, but the main target seems to be northern Minnesota. This one will be worth paying attention to as it develops and approaches our area.

Regardless of what shape that storm takes, it will be followed later next week by reinforcements of cold air.