Forecast First Alerts continue for Friday morning and Sunday

Here’s your Wednesday evening forecast for March 20, 2024 from Minnesota’s Weather Authority and Meteorologist Wren Clair.

Forecast First Alerts continue for Thursday night into Friday morning AND Sunday. Light to moderate snow will make the Friday morning commute slippery, and heavy snow is possible Sunday.

We’re clouding over west to east tonight, with lighter winds and cloudy skies overnight. Overnight lows are colder, back into the low-20s tonight. A few light snow showers (more so flurries) are possible late overnight into tomorrow morning across far west-central Minnesota. However, this isn’t the round of accumulating snowfall. Instead by Thursday evening snow starts to accumulate first across west-central Minnesota, then spreading eastward. The Twin Cities stands a better shot at seeing the accumulating snowfall begin after the Thursday evening commute.

A Winter Weather Advisory is in place from Alexandria to St. Cloud to the Twin Cities and into west-central Wisconsin from Thursday evening through Friday morning (7 PM Thursday through 10 AM Friday for the Twin Cities metro area)

Light to steady snow becomes more widespread after sunset through the overnight hours Thursday night. In the Twin Cities, snow should start closer to 8:00 PM Thursday evening, continuing through the morning commute on Friday. Most areas under the Winter Weather Advisory can expect 2 to 4 inches of snowfall by Friday morning. An isolated 4 to 6 inches are possible across far west-central Minnesota towards Alexandria, maybe extending towards St. Cloud. Around Brainerd and Hinckley, totals should be closer to an inch or two.

Friday afternoon through Saturday will be chilly and dry. The next round of snow starts to move in Saturday night into Sunday. While this is still a few days away, the chances for heavy snow are high across a large part of Minnesota. It is still too early to have accurate forecast totals. Expect those to come out sometime on Friday. Regardless, travel could become difficult across most of the state on Sunday. By Monday and Tuesday a wintry mix of rain and snow is possible. We could definitely still see forecast changes between now and late Sunday into the start of next week. However, if you have travel plans Sunday through Tuesday, now is a great time to start thinking about alternatives.

Have a wonderful night!

Wren