Welcome snow on the way for the northern Plains

AccuWeather

Parts of the northern Plains that are used to a lot more snow being on the ground will have their first significant snow in a while this weekend.

Transcript

00:00Matt, I know that snow often elicits a variety of emotional responses from people.

00:05Some people love it.

00:06Some people get to travel.

00:07It's a problem.

00:08We haven't seen as much of it as some might prefer in the upper Midwest this year.

00:12Yeah, and for places that you think would see a lot of snow, at least by this point

00:15in the season, haven't seen very much.

00:17So this is a welcome sight for, well, many, hopefully, across this region.

00:21But right now, satellites showing snow working its way from west to east.

00:25While it looks like it's snowing close to the Twin Cities, not quite hitting the ground

00:28just yet, a lot of dry air in the lowest levels of the atmosphere, you have to head

00:31north of the Twin Cities towards the St. Cloud area.

00:34That's where you're seeing a better forcing in the atmosphere for that snow making it

00:37down to the ground.

00:39And we'll continue to see the snow picking up as we head into tonight, Jeff, through

00:42tomorrow morning.

00:43And we have a big temperature contrast here.

00:45A lot of the time, we find a sharp contrast in temps.

00:48We can find some trouble off of the storm track.

00:5150 in Scottsbluff, but it's only 10 degrees in Bismarck.

00:55And how do we expect temperatures to impact this storm in areas farther east, maybe Minneapolis

00:59versus Chicago?

01:00Well, it comes down to the snow ratios, Jeff, and that's the amount of liquid precipitation

01:05to what you see for the amount of snow.

01:08And the snow ratios with this storm, pretty high.

01:10We're talking about 15 to 20 to 1 as far as how much liquid precept to what you see with

01:16regards to snow.

01:17That equates to very fluffy snow.

01:19So along that key storm track here across upper Midwest Minnesota back through Wisconsin,

01:24those snow ratios very high compared to places farther south, of course, a little bit warmer

01:29down towards the Chicago area where you could see more mixed precipitation down that direction.

01:33But higher snow ratios may mean more snow for some folks, especially across this region

01:38as we head into tomorrow and as we take future radar through tonight into tomorrow.

01:42This whole system shifting eastward with time by tomorrow morning.

01:46The core of it from the Twin Cities back towards north central and central Wisconsin shifting

01:50into the lower peninsula of Michigan into tomorrow afternoon before this whole thing

01:54shifts east and, of course, becomes our big item for the northeast as we head into tomorrow

01:59night and, of course, into Sunday.

02:01Now, as far as snow amounts go, I know we're always looking at how much snow we're going

02:06to see in these areas.

02:07Our winter cast showing 6 to 10 inches of snow here for the Green Bay area.

02:11Note though, you're probably close to that 6 inch mark compared to the 10 inch mark.

02:16We're pretty close to that 6 to 10 to 3 to 6 area on winter cast.

02:20And same goes for the Twin Cities, 3 to 6 inches here.

02:23You're probably looking at more snow on the north side of the cities up towards the north

02:27side, St. Cloud, Santee, anywhere on the north side of the cities there.

02:31But at least in Minneapolis, 3 to 6.

02:33And then you don't have to go too far south, south of the Minnesota River.

02:36You're probably looking at 1 to 3 inches of snow in that direction.

02:40And then behind this, Matt, where do we go from here?

02:42Can we finally get out there with the snowmobiles and enjoy this stuff?

02:45Well, and that's the key, Jeff.

02:47We just don't have a lot of snow here right now.

02:49So you mentioned the snow ratios are very high.

02:52So you could see 6 to 8 inches of snow.

02:54You may say, hey, that's a lot of snow.

02:56But when you start running sleds across that, could push that snowpack down pretty quickly.

03:01And also as we head into Sunday, winds pick up, well, especially later tomorrow into tomorrow

03:06night and into Sunday, could get some blowing snow, especially in the open areas west and

03:10south of the Twin Cities.

03:12Snowfall amounts, again, you can see where that bullseye of snow, we have 6 to 12 inches

03:17listed from the Dakotas back through central Minnesota.

03:20We'd want to focus more on probably more 6 to 8 inches across that area with higher amounts

03:25closer to 10, but that stripe running all the way back through lower Michigan and, of

03:29course, into the northeast.

03:30All right.

03:31Well, the road crews will be busy for sure here.

03:34And landscape crews that diversify their income and their revenue through the winter months.

03:39It's important.

03:40This is meaningful stuff here in areas where you typically would expect snow like this.

03:43Matt, thanks for all your insight over the past couple of days here.

03:46You bet.

03:47All right.

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