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.
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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.