A cloudy day with scattered rain for parts of the state, snow tomorrow for much of the state, and varying conditions through the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Today is a cloudy, dreary day with scattered to light rain showers for most of the state except the Red River Valley.  Mosty clear to clear skies are from Breckenridge to Hawley, to Erskine, and to Roseau.  Temperatures are in the low to mid 30's up in these areas while they range from the upper 30's in the southwest part of the state to the upper 40's in the southeast part of the state.

A surface inverted trough runs from southwest Iowa, through western Iowa and is sitting from Fairmont to Buffalo Lake to Litchfield to St Cloud to Pine City.  Low visibilities in fog and mist encompass most of the state outside the Red River Valley.  The inverted trough is bringing steady rain from Fairmont to New Ulm to Arlington.  This area of precipitation is slowly propagating to the west along the area of lift.  More light showers are near Charles City, Iowa moving northeasterly into southeastern Minnesota as the day goes on.  The inverted trough will slowly move eastward during the day and evening as the center of the surface low moves into southern Wisconsin.

Jet stream energy currently over eastern Montana will move eastward and will help provide lift as the cold air moves across the state tonight into tomorrow.  Future snow amounts tomorrow from the National Weather Service are in the range from 1-2in along the I-94 corridor down to Mankato with some isolated higher amounts.  This will make travel before Thanksgiving slower and the roads wet and slippery in some places.  Slow down and allow extra time to get to your destination.

Colder air will move into the state on Thanksgiving day with northwesterly winds as the deep upper level trough strengthens and moves to the east coast.  It appears there will be downslope winds off the Rockies from the greater Calgary, Alberta area to central Montana on Thursday.  This warms the air as it descends from higher areas warming the plains areas in front of the Mountains.  An upper level ridge will helpbring this warmer air and other warmer air from the southwest US into the state on Friday.

Farther out, it looks like a colder pattern is in store for the state after this warmer November with more typical December-like conditions into next week.