A gorgeous Saturday; Sunday morning shower chance
It's great when gorgeous weather happens on a weekend! Our Saturday weather will be a winner across most of Minnesota plus western Wisconsin.
On to the details.
Temperature trends
Saturday afternoon highs will range from the upper 50s in far northern Minnesota to lower 70s in much of the south, including the Twin Cities metro area. Our average high is 66 degrees in the metro area this time of year.
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Sunday highs will be mainly in the 50s in northern Minnesota, with 60s south:
Metro area highs are projected to be in the lower 60s Monday and Tuesday, followed by mid 50s Wednesday and Thursday, then around 60 on Friday.
Rain chances
There will be a chance of scattered showers and an isolated thunderstorm in roughly the northern third of Minnesota anytime from mid-to-late Saturday. That rain chance expands southward this evening and overnight. In the Twin Cities metro area, our rain chance holds off until well after midnight.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential rain pattern Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening:
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of rain. The loop shows the general rain pattern within the NAM model, but it will rain in some areas that look dry in the loop.
As always, updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and you’ll also see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.
Snow season recap
The official Twin Cities 2018-19 snow season tally, measured at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, sits at 77.1 inches. That's well above our (30-year) average Twin Cities season snowfall total of 54 inches. Just one year ago, we had our tenth-snowiest snow season in Twin Cities weather records, with 78.3 inches.
Both snow seasons started out slowly, with minimal snow in November and December:
February was the snowiest month of this 2018-2019 snow season in the Twin Cities, with 39 inches. It's interesting that February was also the snowiest month of the 2015-2016 snow season in the Twin Cities, although MSP airport recorded only 12.1 inches of snow in February of 2016.
Programming note
You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m., 9:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.