Stormy Sunday up north

Posted at 4:28 PM on December 12, 2008 by Paul Huttner (2 Comments)

Get ready up north for the strongest storm so far this season.

Today I listened in on the National Weather Service in Duluth's conference call with MnDOT, schools, county and homeland security officials to discuss the potential effects of the weekend storm on northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The bulk of the storm will move into northern and western Minnesota Saturday night. The worst conditions will peak Sunday and Sunday night.

The heaviest snow is likely to fall along a line from Sioux Falls, S.D., towards Brainerd and Duluth.

People within that area could see more than 10 inches of snow accumulation. Further north, the Iron Range and the the North Shore could see snow accumulations approaching or exceeding 16 inches.

In the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota, the storm may begin as a mixed bag of rain, freezing rain and sleet before changing over to snow from west to east during the day on Sunday.

It appears the mixed precipitation types may limit snow amounts in the metro, with a quick burst of snow later on Sunday and Sunday night.

A band of significant icing may set up between the Twin Cities and Duluth.

High winds Sunday and Sunday night could create blizzard conditions in the Dakotas and western Minnesota.

Extreme cold with wind chills of minus 20 to minus 30 degrees below zero will follow the storm Sunday night and Monday.

It will be interesting to see if Lake Superior enhanced snow plumes develop with the storm Sunday.

Stay safe in your travels this weekend.

Twin Cities NWS storm page

Comments (2)

It's a blizzard here on Park Point, Sunday mid-day. About 9:30 it went from cloudy and some wind to WIND and SNOW. So we've had our three hours of wind, which I guess is the standard. At our house, we get the wind right off the lake, so the snow flies horizontally through our backyard and then piles up on the leeward side, our front yard. Visibility is maybe 200 yards.

Great job, forecasters! We were very well warned about this one.

Posted by Andrew Slade | December 14, 2008 12:24 PM

Down in the cities today we got a ton of rain. If it was snowing instead of raining earlier today, how much snow would we have gotten? Is there an equation for converting inches of rain to inches of snow?

Thanks!

Posted by Brian | December 14, 2008 10:35 PM

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