Snowy Monday from the metro area south and east

Rain, snow and mixed precipitation lifted north out of Iowa overnight. The area has been expanding and will change to all snow Monday morning.

Many schools are closed for the day. Travel will be disrupted, especially Monday afternoon and evening.

Blizzard

A blizzard warning continues for the rest of Monday for much of south-central and southwestern Minnesota, mainly south and southwest of Mankato. Heavy snow and winds gusting to around 40 mph will cause whiteout conditions in open areas at times. Near-blizzard conditions had already developed around Windom and Worthington by 8 a.m. Monday.

Soggy snow on the way

Moderate to heavy wet snow will expand northeastward throughout Monday, so a large area of winter storm warnings, as shown above in pink, have been posted from Minnesota well into west central and northern Wisconsin.

By the time the snow winds down Monday night, a foot or more of snow will have fallen on much of the warned area.

Twin Cities metro area

Snow began before 7 a.m. in the southernmost suburbs and will overspread the metro area this morning. Expect the heaviest snow, with visibilities possibly down to about a quarter of a mile, Monday afternoon.

This storm will have a rather sharply-defined northwest edge. While southern Dakota County in the southeast metro might get whacked with about a foot of snow, the far northwestern suburbs might see just around a couple inches.

I think the inner core of Minneapolis and St Paul will pick up around a half foot of snow, but don't hold me to the exact number of inches.

Any slight shift in the storm track will change the forecast for your backyard considerably. Regardless of the exact amounts, the evening commute will be a trudge.

The good news

Amidst the federal government shutdown, the men and women at the National Weather Service are still hard at work 24/7, running weather forecast models, preparing weather forecasts and issuing weather watches and warnings. The NWS is considered an essential service and, in my professional opinion, constitutes an excellent usage of our tax dollars.

Driving conditions

As always, you can monitor driving conditions around Minnesota on the Minnesota Department of Transportation's 511 page.

They also have added a neat feature where you can actually see road conditions. Real-time cameras have been installed in snowplows. You can access the plow cameras from the 511 page whenever snowplows are out working.

Tuesday

Snow and rain will spread across the Great lakes and into many eastern states on Tuesday.

For us in Minnesota, the backside of this storm will not end with the usual arctic blast. Instead, temperatures will return to about normal for this time of year.

Extended outlook

Later this week, temperatures might touch the low 40s again in the Twin Cities on Friday.