Winter storm watch expanded for Friday evening through Saturday evening

The National Weather Service has expanded the winter storm watch that starts on Friday to cover more of Minnesota and western Wisconsin:

The watch begins Friday afternoon in parts of central Minnesota, and it begins Friday evening in the Twin Cities metro area.

Watch details:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

National Weather Service Twin Cities/Chanhassen MN

344 AM CDT Thu Apr 12 2018

...SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM POSSIBLE FRIDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH

SATURDAY EVENING...

.A significant winter storm is expected Friday afternoon into

Saturday evening and will likely include all precipitation types,

strong winds, and blizzard conditions. A Winter Storm Watch is in

effect for Friday afternoon and Saturday for much of central and

southern Minnesota and west central Wisconsin.

Rain and thunderstorms are expected to develop late Thursday

night and persist for much of the day Friday as temperatures

remain in the mid 30s in central Minnesota to the lower 40s along

the Minnesota Iowa border. Colder air will begin to move into

central Minnesota Friday afternoon and evening, changing the

precipitation to snow across central and western Minnesota. In

addition to the heavy snow, strong winds gusting between 40 to 50

mph will bring the possibility of blizzard conditions to west

central Minnesota. The best chance for whiteouts will be late

Friday night there. The rain will turn to a wintry mix of freezing

rain, sleet, and snow across south central and east central

Minnesota, and west central Wisconsin Friday evening, before

changing to all snow Saturday morning.

Total snow accumulations of 8 to 15 inches are possible across

central and west central Minnesota, with totals tapering off to 3

or 6 inches across south central Minnesota and west central

Wisconsin. Total ice and sleet accumulations of one to two tenths

of an inch are possible across the southern third of Minnesota

into west central Wisconsin.

MNZ060-062-063-067>070-074-075-082-WIZ023-025-027-121645-

/O.CON.KMPX.WS.A.0009.180414T0300Z-180415T0600Z/

Hennepin-Ramsey-Washington-Sibley-Carver-Scott-Dakota-Brown-

Nicollet-Watonwan-St. Croix-Dunn-Chippewa-

Including the cities of Minneapolis, St Paul, Stillwater,

Gaylord, Chaska, Shakopee, Hastings, New Ulm, St Peter, St James,

Hudson, Menomonie, and Chippewa Falls

344 AM CDT Thu Apr 12 2018

...WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM FRIDAY EVENING

THROUGH LATE SATURDAY NIGHT...

* WHAT...Heavy mixed precipitation possible. Total snow

accumulations of 6 to 10 inches, and ice accumulations of one

tenth to two tenths of an inch are possible.

* WHERE...Portions of west central Wisconsin and central, east

central and south central Minnesota.

* WHEN...From Friday evening through late Saturday night.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Plan on difficult travel conditions. Tree

branches could fall. Winds gusting as high as 45 mph could

cause areas of blowing and drifting snow.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A Winter Storm Watch means there is potential for significant

snow, sleet or ice accumulations that may impact travel. Continue

to monitor the latest forecasts.

New computer model info will be coming in today, and forecast snow amounts will be adjusted, but here is the snow potential from Friday afternoon through Saturday:

A more detailed update will be posted later Thursday morning on the Updraft blog.