Rare Early October Snow Greets Minnesota

Posted at 8:42 AM on October 12, 2009 by Paul Huttner

Snow clad deck chairs at the Huttner Weather Lab this morning.
(Photo by Paul Huttner)

If Columbus had arrived in the new world and saw Minnesota today, he would have turned around and gone home.

An early season snow is making for difficult travel this Monday. A steady band of light to moderate snow is moving through much of southern Minnesota today. It looks like snowfall amounts will be in the 1" to 3"+ range for much of the area. There may be a few islolated 4"+ amounts by this afternoon. Though much of the snow will melt on conact with warm ground, motorists should expect slippery travel on some area roads through this afternoon.

Update 9:10am: Both Craig Edwards in Eden Prairie and Huttner in Deephaven measure 3.5" of snow on the weather lab decks.

Snow covered landscape in Eden Prairie this morning.
(Photo by Craig Edwards)

Surface and radar reports indicate snow falling from Eau Claire all the way back to Sioux Falls this morning. Expect the low to pull east of the region this afternoon and snow should end from west to east. I expect snow will taper off in the Twin Cities this afternoon.

This much snowfall in the first half of October is rare in the Twin Cities. The most snowfall ever recorded in the first half of October in the Twin Cities is 2.5". We may break that record today.

Today's snow is just the latest round in a crazy weather month here in Minnesota. In the last month we've seen 80 degrees, lilacs blooming in September, and snow.

The combination of green grass, green leaves on the trees colorful leaves on the ground and snow is a rare one. Take it easy on the roads today. And send me your snow pictures to phuttner@mpr.org. I will post some of them this afternoon.

At least weather forecasters have plenty to talk about!

PH

A new burst of snow adds to snowfall just before 9 am.

Snow covers leaves in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Tom Weber)

Snow covered trees in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Tom Weber)

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