Snowy clipper overnight; subzero air to blanket Minnesota into next week

Slick roads again Friday morning

Here comes our next snowmaker. This one brings a long-duration subzero arctic air mass.

Bands of snow are sweeping across Minnesota overnight into early Friday morning. The system is an Alberta clipper. These low-pressure systems are common in winter and generally sweep shots of light snow southeast across our state in January and February.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NAM 3 km model tracks the snow band across Minnesota from the Red River Valley Thursday evening across Minnesota overnight:

Snow will most likely begin in the Twin Cities and Duluth around and after midnight. Snow should end in the Twin Cities between about 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. for most areas from west to east.

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Overall snowfall totals with this system favor 1 to 2 inches across southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities area.

Snowfall between 1 and 3 inches is more likely up north, with some 4-inch totals possible along the North Shore from Lutsen through Grand Marais to Grand Portage.

Here's a closer look at likely snowfall totals for central and southern Minnesota:

It will feel milder out there early Friday morning. A narrow wedge of Pacific air will get pulled up across the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota before the arctic front blows through.

On the map below, you can see the wedge of 30s Friday morning before subzero air begins to pulse southward this weekend across Minnesota. Lows should plunge into the minus 10s in the Twin Cities by Monday morning, with minus 20s to around minus 30 in the colder nooks and crannies up north this weekend.

This looks like a persistent cold event that will last through most of next week. We’ll likely see four to six subzero mornings in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota through next week.

This isn't record or polar vortex-level cold. Temperatures reached minus 60 degrees in northern China this week! The pool of air feeding across the polar regions is deep and bitter, but it will modify some before it reaches Minnesota.

It remains to be seen where we will bottom out next week. But teens below zero look likely for the Twin Cities.

Stay tuned.