Wintry mess: Mixed precipitation to wet sloppy snow today
Just in case we forgot what late November looks like in Minnesota, the radar is lighting up with weird colors today.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
730 AM CST TUE NOV 22 2016
...WINTRY MIX FALLING ACROSS MOST OF THE SOUTHERN HALF OF MINNESOTA THIS MORNING...
...ACCUMULATING SNOWFALL IN CENTRAL/EAST CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...
A WINTRY MIX CONTINUES ACROSS THE SOUTHERN HALF OF MINNESOTA THIS MORNING. THIS ROUND WILL WEAKEN LATER THIS MORNING WITH MORE INTERMITTENT PRECIPITATION CONTINUING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. ANOTHER AREA OF PRECIPITATION BEGINS TO DEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS SOUTHERN MINNESOTA AND SPREADS NORTHEAST FOR THE EVENING. THE PRECIPITATION WILL CHANGE BACK OVER TO SNOW THIS EVENING WITH ACCUMULATIONS TONIGHT.
Winter weather advisories are up as a mixed bag of precipitation changes to all snow by tonight. It still looks like a good swath of 2 to 5 inches of wet sloppy snow will blanket the metro and much of central Minnesota and western Wisconsin by Wednesday morning.
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INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...PRINCETON...MORA...ST CLOUD...FOLEY...ELK RIVER...CAMBRIDGE...CENTER CITY...WILLMAR...LITCHFIELD...MONTICELLO...MINNEAPOLIS...BLAINE...ST PAUL...STILLWATER...HUTCHINSON...GAYLORD...CHASKA...SHAKOPEE...HASTINGS
730 AM CST TUE NOV 22 2016
...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST WEDNESDAY...
* EXPECT A ROUND OF WINTRY MIX OR SNOW THIS MORNING FOLLOWED BY A BREAK DURING THE LATE MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON. MORE PRECIPITATION...MAINLY SNOW...WILL DEVELOP LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THEN DIMINISH AROUND 6 AM WEDNESDAY.
* THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL RATES WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 6 PM THIS EVENING AND MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.
* TOTAL WET SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES ARE EXPECTED WITH A GLAZE OF ICE ALSO POSSIBLE.
* PLAN ON SLIPPERY ROAD CONDITIONS.
Sloppy low-pressure system
Here's the elongated low-pressure system responsible for our latest dose of winter weather. Mixed precipitation changes to all snow across the metro this afternoon and continues tonight into Wednesday morning. Not a major storm, but strong enough to gum up the works.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Global Forecast System continues to be the most aggressive with snowfall totals near the Twin Cities. With sloppy wet snow and compaction, totals may not get this high, but a good 2 to 5 inches is very possible by Wednesday morning.
Better travel times
Travel improves around the region Wednesday afternoon and evening through Thanksgiving Day. A second system brings a shot of light snow late Thanksgiving night into Black Friday morning.
Right now the weekend looks milder and nicer, with highs in the 40s both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night's system now looks like mostly rain for the metro, with some snow up north.
Is there a solar roof in your future?
In the not-too-distant future. your roof may do more than just stop the (freezing) rain. It could generate most of the electricity you need for your home, at a lower price than today.
Here's more on the trend toward developing relatively attractive solar roofing materials. The market continues to drive innovation in the clean energy sector. I wonder how they will handle Minnesota's winter snow?
Here's the Tesla Solar Roof story from electrek.
Elon Musk made quite the announcement today. During the special shareholders meeting to approve the merger with SolarCity, which they approved by 85%, he said that he was coming back from a meeting with the SolarCity engineering team about the solar roof and that he now feels confident that they could deliver the product at a lower cost than a regular roof – even before energy production.
That’s different from what the company was claiming before the meeting today.
And it’s an incredibly bold claim since if it turns out to be true, no homeowner would have any reason not to choose a solar roof when buying a new roof.
Since unveiling the new products a few weeks ago, Musk and Tesla officials have been referring to the solar roof’s price as “less than the price of a regular roof when accounting for energy generation” – meaning that it will cost less than a regular roof when you account for your savings on your electricity bills.
It made sense. Solar energy is already competitive in several markets and while the price of the solar roof could be more expensive than a regular roof as an upfront investment, those electricity savings would quickly add up and made the product competitive with normal roofing solutions.
But now claiming that it would cost even less than a regular roof upfront is a completely different game.
Musk said during the meeting earlier this afternoon:
“It’s looking quite promising that a solar roof actually cost less than normal roof before you even take the value of electricity into account. So the basic proposition would be ‘Would you like a roof that looks better than a normal roof, last twice as long, cost less and by the way generates electricity’ why would you get anything else.”