Old Man Winter Makes his Return This Weekend

(KNSI) — Our easy winter ride is about to come to a screeching halt.

The National Weather Service says a “powerful winter storm will impact the Midwest beginning tonight along with our first Arctic air outbreak of the season starting this weekend.”

While St. Cloud isn’t under any watches, warnings or advisories, it does come as close as Meeker and Wright Counties. As of Thursday morning, those areas, including the Twin Cities, are all under a winter storm watch starting tonight and going through at least 6:00 Saturday morning.

You’ve probably seen the meme with the 0″ to 78″ inches of snow predicted for Minnesota, and this system is kind of like that.

St. Cloud and central Minnesota is in line to get up to 3″ of snow, but if you are traveling southern and southeastern Minnesota from Red Wing through Faribault over to Mankato and down toward Albert Lee, you will see between 2″ and 6″ of snow. Areas like Rochester and LaCrosse could get anywhere from 4″ to 11″. That area is under a winter storm warning, as is the North Shore. The coastal areas of Lake and Cook Counties, including Lutsen, Silver Bay, and Grand Marais, will get 5″ to 10″. Northwestern Minnesota around East Grand Forks over to Thief River Falls to the Canadian border are under a winter weather advisory, with counties along the North Dakota border under a blizzard warning.

It will get blustery Friday night with winds gusting out of the north at around 30 miles an hour, according to the latest forecasts and then comes the cold.

Saturday, highs will only get into the single digits above zero, but northwest winds right out of Canada will still be gusting at 30 to 35 miles an hour, making it feel like it’s in the teens to 20s below zero. Saturday night, temps will be in the teens below zero pushing windchills down into the 30s below zero. It’s still bad Sunday, with highs in the single digits below zero and windchills around 30 below. It will still be cold on Sunday night and Monday, Martin Luther King Junior Day, but not as windy.

Tuesday, we’re halfway through January, so that could be a silver lining?

___