Minnesota winter storm: What to expect Wednesday night
Drivers traverse Dodd Road in Mendota Heights, Minn. amid very heavy snow on Jan. 3.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News
Part two of the two-part snow system Minnesota is facing this week is fast approaching. While there’s a lull for much of the day Wednesday, meteorologists predict that the next snowfall will likely fall in the top snowfall events for the Twin Cities.
MPR News’ Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner joined MPR Host Cathy Wurzer to provide more details plus a look at the weekend’s weather.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: If you're hoping for more snow, don't worry. It's coming. We're in the middle of two storms, and the next one is shaping up to be a doozy. Details right now with Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Hey, Paul.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, C. Round 1, all the way through. Just getting ready for the big wave.
CATHY WURZER: I can see why people are looking out the window saying, what? What's the deal? It's sunny. It's fine. Don't worry about it. But yeah, there is a second wave coming.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, there is. And that will be the bigger part of the storm. This was just the appetizer, the easier part. Now the lull. The main event comes later this afternoon through tonight through Thursday morning. Cathy, here's some snowfall totals from the first wave. Twin Cities area, White Bear Lake, low end 3.7 inches.
Twin Cities Airport, 4.1. Arden Hills, Circle Pines, four. Saint Cloud, four. Hudson had five. Hopkins, 5.2. You get down to Lakeville, five and a half. Wilmer had that as well. Lake City and Rochester, six inches of snow. Chanhassen, 6.5. That's the highest in the Twin Cities so far. And Waseca, Edgerton, and Slayton had around seven inches overnight.
CATHY WURZER: You know, I was just on the weather radar, and I'm seeing this next batch of what looks like significant snow kind of organizing over Southern Minnesota. Is that what we're going to be seeing in the Twin Cities soon?
PAUL HUTTNER: It is. That's the leading edge of the main wave, the second wave of this low-pressure system. And it'll work north as we go through the early afternoon hours here. So I'm seeing that snow to Pipestone, Windom, right along the I-90 corridor. Fairmont, Blue Earth, Albert Lea, all the way into Rochester, now up to about Wabasha.
Twin Cities, I think it'll make it in here around 3 o'clock this afternoon. And then the heaviest waves of snow come in tonight and tomorrow morning, and it comes with wind. We're going to see some of these snow bursts overnight. I think between about 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM will be the heaviest part of the storm. We'll get some of those bursts of one to three inches per hour. So it's going to come down hard for several hours.
That means another nine to 15 inches of snow, additional snow. Nine to 15 inches for most areas of Southern Minnesota, up into Central Minnesota. Cathy, that'll put our storm totals between about 13 and 20 inches, I think, in most areas. Maybe a couple spots over 20 inches on the high end.
And just a reminder, if we get to 15 inches in the Twin Cities, that's a top 15 storm. Remember, we just had 15 inches back on January 2 through the 5th. And if we get to 20, that would be a number three. I don't know if we'll get there, but it'll be close.
CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering, by the way, how folks do measure snowfall, because it can be kind of tricky, especially with the winds.
PAUL HUTTNER: It is. And you know, there's actually a technique for this developed in part by Pete Boulay who works out at the Minnesota State Climate Office. They call it a Boulay board, Cathy, in the trade. It's a plastic board, kind of a square. Put it on the ground.
And what you do is you want to measure snowfall in multiple spots. You don't just stick it in the high spot or the low spot. You take an average of several areas. And what the Weather Service does is they sweep that snow away. They're typically measuring every six hours because if you just let it pile up, it will compress, so you might get a total that's less than what actually fell. So there's kind of a little art to measuring snow, it turns out.
CATHY WURZER: Let's talk about the winds and the blizzard warnings. Some of those MnDOT traffic cameras out west, it looks-- it's pretty substantial when it comes to the winds. How would you characterize what's coming in?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, it's worse. It's going to be much worse tonight for wind and snow tonight through the nighttime hours through Thursday morning. Tomorrow's rush hour looks absolutely abysmal in the Twin Cities and Southern Minnesota. And yeah, blizzard warnings kick in. So noon today till noon Thursday for most areas, including the Southwest collar counties of the Twin Cities.
So this is going to be a full-blown blizzard. The worst of the storm is still ahead. Just can't emphasize that enough. We saw this lull coming, but here comes the stronger part of the storm as we head through tonight.
CATHY WURZER: So what can we expect through the weekend behind this system?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's going to warm up a little. Very cold Friday, but then we're back into the 20s Saturday. 30s it looks like this weekend. We could have 40 degrees with a little rain on Monday.
CATHY WURZER: What?
PAUL HUTTNER: Interesting to note, Cathy, that the temperature contrast across this storm, it was 30 below near Lake Winnipeg last night. It's 70 in Saint Louis today. So we've got 100 degrees of contrast to drive that storm.
And just one other note. The spring leaf out is happening in New York City. It's the earliest ever on record. Much of the South Central US, one of the earliest leaf outs in 40 years. So it is spring about almost as far as up to St. Louis. Hard to believe that here in Minnesota, but it's been a very, very interesting pattern so far this February.
CATHY WURZER: You say interesting, I say weird. All right, Paul Huttner, I [LAUGHS] appreciate it. I know you're going to be busy later this afternoon into the evening hours. Thank you so much.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's our meteorologist, Paul Huttner. By the way, you can follow the storm by going to mprnews.org.
PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, C. Round 1, all the way through. Just getting ready for the big wave.
CATHY WURZER: I can see why people are looking out the window saying, what? What's the deal? It's sunny. It's fine. Don't worry about it. But yeah, there is a second wave coming.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, there is. And that will be the bigger part of the storm. This was just the appetizer, the easier part. Now the lull. The main event comes later this afternoon through tonight through Thursday morning. Cathy, here's some snowfall totals from the first wave. Twin Cities area, White Bear Lake, low end 3.7 inches.
Twin Cities Airport, 4.1. Arden Hills, Circle Pines, four. Saint Cloud, four. Hudson had five. Hopkins, 5.2. You get down to Lakeville, five and a half. Wilmer had that as well. Lake City and Rochester, six inches of snow. Chanhassen, 6.5. That's the highest in the Twin Cities so far. And Waseca, Edgerton, and Slayton had around seven inches overnight.
CATHY WURZER: You know, I was just on the weather radar, and I'm seeing this next batch of what looks like significant snow kind of organizing over Southern Minnesota. Is that what we're going to be seeing in the Twin Cities soon?
PAUL HUTTNER: It is. That's the leading edge of the main wave, the second wave of this low-pressure system. And it'll work north as we go through the early afternoon hours here. So I'm seeing that snow to Pipestone, Windom, right along the I-90 corridor. Fairmont, Blue Earth, Albert Lea, all the way into Rochester, now up to about Wabasha.
Twin Cities, I think it'll make it in here around 3 o'clock this afternoon. And then the heaviest waves of snow come in tonight and tomorrow morning, and it comes with wind. We're going to see some of these snow bursts overnight. I think between about 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM will be the heaviest part of the storm. We'll get some of those bursts of one to three inches per hour. So it's going to come down hard for several hours.
That means another nine to 15 inches of snow, additional snow. Nine to 15 inches for most areas of Southern Minnesota, up into Central Minnesota. Cathy, that'll put our storm totals between about 13 and 20 inches, I think, in most areas. Maybe a couple spots over 20 inches on the high end.
And just a reminder, if we get to 15 inches in the Twin Cities, that's a top 15 storm. Remember, we just had 15 inches back on January 2 through the 5th. And if we get to 20, that would be a number three. I don't know if we'll get there, but it'll be close.
CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering, by the way, how folks do measure snowfall, because it can be kind of tricky, especially with the winds.
PAUL HUTTNER: It is. And you know, there's actually a technique for this developed in part by Pete Boulay who works out at the Minnesota State Climate Office. They call it a Boulay board, Cathy, in the trade. It's a plastic board, kind of a square. Put it on the ground.
And what you do is you want to measure snowfall in multiple spots. You don't just stick it in the high spot or the low spot. You take an average of several areas. And what the Weather Service does is they sweep that snow away. They're typically measuring every six hours because if you just let it pile up, it will compress, so you might get a total that's less than what actually fell. So there's kind of a little art to measuring snow, it turns out.
CATHY WURZER: Let's talk about the winds and the blizzard warnings. Some of those MnDOT traffic cameras out west, it looks-- it's pretty substantial when it comes to the winds. How would you characterize what's coming in?
PAUL HUTTNER: Well, it's worse. It's going to be much worse tonight for wind and snow tonight through the nighttime hours through Thursday morning. Tomorrow's rush hour looks absolutely abysmal in the Twin Cities and Southern Minnesota. And yeah, blizzard warnings kick in. So noon today till noon Thursday for most areas, including the Southwest collar counties of the Twin Cities.
So this is going to be a full-blown blizzard. The worst of the storm is still ahead. Just can't emphasize that enough. We saw this lull coming, but here comes the stronger part of the storm as we head through tonight.
CATHY WURZER: So what can we expect through the weekend behind this system?
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, it's going to warm up a little. Very cold Friday, but then we're back into the 20s Saturday. 30s it looks like this weekend. We could have 40 degrees with a little rain on Monday.
CATHY WURZER: What?
PAUL HUTTNER: Interesting to note, Cathy, that the temperature contrast across this storm, it was 30 below near Lake Winnipeg last night. It's 70 in Saint Louis today. So we've got 100 degrees of contrast to drive that storm.
And just one other note. The spring leaf out is happening in New York City. It's the earliest ever on record. Much of the South Central US, one of the earliest leaf outs in 40 years. So it is spring about almost as far as up to St. Louis. Hard to believe that here in Minnesota, but it's been a very, very interesting pattern so far this February.
CATHY WURZER: You say interesting, I say weird. All right, Paul Huttner, I [LAUGHS] appreciate it. I know you're going to be busy later this afternoon into the evening hours. Thank you so much.
PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah. Thanks, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: That's our meteorologist, Paul Huttner. By the way, you can follow the storm by going to mprnews.org.
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