GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — After a largely snowless winter, folks in parts of Minnesota are dealing with remnants from an early spring blast that made things interesting late Thursday through Friday morning.
As predicted, most communities impacted by the weather system woke up to between 3 and 5 inches of snow, light fluffy powder that was already melting by daylight. A small band just north of the cities dropped a bit more - 6 to 7 inches - on communities like Elk River, St. Francis and Big Lake.
Although the snow made the morning commute a bit tricky, roads were fine by early afternoon.
Don't celebrate yet... winter's last gasp is not over. Thursday was merely a warmup for the main event, which will rev up Sunday night and should move out by Tuesday.
KARE 11's John Ziegler says models show "a much stronger setup" in terms of the storm system, and indicated that the amount of moisture involved looks like five times the amount involved in Thursday's storm (.3 inches versus 1.5 inches liquid). The National Weather Service says that as a rule of thumb, 1 inch of water generates 10 inches of snow when conditions are right.
The amount of snow we will get on Sunday depends on a number of variables. Zeigler expects snow to turn into rain eventually, and the later that happens the more snow we can expect. At this point, 6 to 12 inches are possible around the Metro area, with even higher totals being in western, central and northern parts of the state.
Potential precipitation totals convinced our meteorologists to designate both Sunday and Monday as Weather Warn days, meaning the forecast will likely have a measurable impact on your plans.
And here's another caveat: The amount of snowpack left after Thursday's event could influence the path and intensity of Sunday's storm. KARE 11's weather team is watching the models carefully and will update forecasts as soon as things change.
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