It was one year ago almost to the day that the skies opened up over Minnesota and dumped 15-inches of snow on the metro area putting all of our hopes and dreams for a mild and early spring on hold for just a bit longer. It was an anomaly, and outlier and it surely couldn't happen again...right?!
As much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, weather models that are coming together for Wednesday & Thursday of this week are telling us that the Twin Cities are in store for a potentially severe snow event that could bring upwards of 29"-36" between Wednesday and Saturday!
Here is the "Hazardous Weather Outlook" warning put out by the National Weather Service today...
Confidence continues to increase a significant winter storm will impact much of the Upper Midwest from Wednesday into early Friday. Heavy snow accumulations may occur across much of the southern two thirds of Minnesota and northern and central Wisconsin, especially Wednesday night into Thursday night.
There is still low confidence where the rain/snow line will set up during the period of heaviest precipitation. At the moment it appears to be somewhere across south central and southeast Minnesota, with snowfall accumulations dropping quickly south of there. The rain/snow line will likely shift north and south some in the next couple days, leading to high amounts of uncertainty in snowfall accumulations across southern Minnesota and portions of western Wisconsin at this time.
A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for western Minnesota where the greatest threat area is for heavy snow and considerable blowing snow, possibly leading to blizzard conditions. However, the watch will likely be expanded in later forecasts. It is important to remain up to date on the latest forecasts in the coming days.
While the total accumulation is very much up in the air, models across the board are showing that the Twin Cities Metro area is going to get hit HARD by some sort of precipitation, snow or rain, likely a mix.