Accumulating Snow Expected Monday Night - Chilly Halloween Tuesday

This was the scene in Dexter, MN, Sunday morning, showing the first accumulating snow of the season on grassy surface across portions of southern Minnesota.

Rochester officially saw 0.4" of snow on Saturday, beating the record for the day of 0.2" set in both 2015 and 1933. The Twin Cities picked up a trace of snow on Saturday, with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen reporting flurries at their office.

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While we will start off with sunnier skies on Monday in the metro, clouds will be on the increase into the afternoon hours as a clipper system approaches out of Canada. Morning lows will be in the mid-20s with highs only climbing to the mid-30s (about 15F degrees below average).

While southern Minnesota will see quiet weather on Monday, snow showers will start to impact northern parts of the state as a system moves in. Highs will generally be in the 30s to begin the week - low 30s up north with upper 30s in southwestern Minnesota.

Forecast loop from 7 AM Monday to 1 PM Tuesday.

A little potent clipper system will slide through the region to begin the week, bringing another shot of snow right before Halloween. You can see the snow already moving into northwestern Minnesota during the midday hours Monday, with most of the snow impacts for the metro expected after dark and lingering into early Tuesday morning.

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Chilly weather will stick around for the first half of the week in the metro, but we will start to see a warming trend as we head into November with highs approaching average by Friday. Looking at the models, it looks like highs will remain in the mid-40s for the Minnesota Deer Hunter Opener Saturday, cooling back to the low 40s for next Sunday and into the first part of the next week. After we get back the Monday Night snow chance, we could watch a few rain showers Friday into Saturday for the metro with some light snow up north Saturday.

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Kids will want a warm costume this year for Halloween on Tuesday as temperatures are expected to be around freezing as they make their rounds for candy. With strong northwesterly winds, it'll feel more like the low 20s.

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The public tends to fixate on snowfall amounts (how many inches on MY driveway Paul!) but timing can be just as important. A burst of slushy snow from a slow-moving Alberta Clipper will arrive tonight and linger into the morning hours Tuesday. Temperatures will be below freezing and a quick inch of snow may fall, even 2" in a few spots. A "nuisance snow" right? Maybe not.

The convergence of a sub-freezing inch of snow, coupled with Tuesday morning rush hour, coupled with first snow of the season? I predict a slow, white-knuckle, rant-heavy drive into work or school tomorrow morning. I hope I'm wrong.

Clouds increase today with a dry sky. After a snowy start tomorrow, skies may clear behind the clipper in time for Trick or Treating, but bundle up. Winds will gust to 30 with a temperature near freezing. The chill factor may dip into the teens by the dinner hour.

Good news: we mellow into the 40s by late week; warm enough aloft for light rain Friday into Sunday. Sub-optimal for leaf-raking, darn it.

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MONDAY: Fading sun. Snow tonight. Wake up 25. High 36. Chance of precipitation 60%. Wind W 10-20 mph.

TUESDAY: Slushy inch AM hours. Feels like 15-20. Wake up 27. High 35. Chance of precipitation 80%. Wind NW 15-35 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Partly sunny, less drama. Wake up 27. High 39. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind S 10-20 mph.

THURSDAY: Peeks of sun, not as cold. Wake up 28. High 42. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind SW 7-12 mph.

FRIDAY: Cloudy, light rain late PM hours. Wake up 32. High 44. Chance of precipitation 70%. Wind E 7-12 mph.

SUNDAY: Another shot of light rain possible. Wake up 20. High 46. Chance of precipitation 70%. Wind NE 8-13 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
October 30th

*Length Of Day: 10 hours, 15 minutes, and 43 seconds
*Daylight LOST Since Yesterday: 2 minutes and 49 seconds

*When Do We Drop Below 10 Hours Of Sunlight? November 5th (9 hours, 59 minutes, 11 seconds)
*Latest Sunrise Before We "Fall Back": November 4th (7:55 AM)
*Earliest Sunset Before We "Fall Back": November 4th (5:57 PM)
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1951: An early snow storm drops as much as 8 inches of snowfall in north central Minnesota. Mora had 8 inches, while Long Prairie received 6 inches. Glenwood, Little Falls, Morris, and New London all had 5 inches of new snow. Meanwhile, surrounding areas received a couple of inches.

1936: An intense dust storm causes damage in Central Minnesota. Heavy wind damage is reported in Stearns County.

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On Monday, a frontal boundary from the Southern U.S. stretching to the Northeast will bring the potential of rain with some snow across portions of New England. Some light snow will also be possible in the Upper Midwest. A few storms are possible across southern Florida. Otherwise, quiet weather is expected across the western United States.

Heavy rain will continue to fall along the frontal boundary in the southern United States, with areas from Texas to Ohio Valley receiving another 2-4" of rain through Tuesday.

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How Hurricane Otis stunned forecasters with its leap to a Category 5

More from the Washington Post: "When residents of Acapulco, Mexico, went to bed on Monday, Wednesday's forecast called for gusty winds and some downpours. Otis, a run-of-the-mill tropical storm, was expected to only "gradually strengthen" en route to the coast. Instead, Otis intensified faster than any other eastern Pacific storm on record Tuesday and became the strongest hurricane to ever strike Mexico slamming Acapulco as a "potentially catastrophic Category 5." As winds catapulted to Category 5 strength Tuesday evening, shocked forecasters at the National Hurricane Center described the storm's extreme intensification as a "nightmare scenario" and "extremely dangerous situation." Nobody saw it coming — but with human-caused climate change warming the planet's oceans, this situation could become more frequent."

How Florida farmworkers are protecting themselves from extreme heat

More from Grist: "On any given summer day, most of the nation's farmworkers, paid according to their productivity, grind through searing heat to harvest as much as possible before day's end. Taking a break to cool down, or even a moment to chug water, isn't an option. The law doesn't require it, so few farms offer it. The problem is most acute in the Deep South, where the weather and politics can be equally brutal toward the men and women who pick this country's food. Yet things are improving as organizers like Leonel Perez take to the fields to tell farmworkers, and those who employ them, about the risks of heat exposure and the need to take breaks, drink water, and recognize the signs of heat exhaustion."

More from the University of Maryland: "University of Maryland researchers studying how lithium batteries fail have developed a new technology that could enable next-generation electric vehicles (EVs) and other devices that are less prone to battery fires while increasing energy storage. The innovative method, presented in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suppresses the growth of lithium dendrites—damaging branch-like structures that develop inside so-called all-solid-state lithium batteries, preventing firms from broadly commercializing the promising technology. But this new design for a battery "interlayer," led by Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Chunsheng Wang, stops dendrite formation, and could open the door for production of viable all-solid-state batteries for EVs."

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

- D.J. Kayser