An Afternoon Storm Possible Monday - Mid-Week Plethora Of Weather

As we watch the system that brought parts of the state rain and snow Sunday into Sunday Night departs (but will still bring some snow early morning Monday in the Arrowhead), we will watch some Monday afternoon showers (maybe a rumble of thunder?) traverse across the state.

So we'll watch the chances of some scattered showers with an isolated crack of thunder as we head through the afternoon hours Monday in the Twin Cities. Otherwise, the skies will be partly to mostly sunny due to some passing clouds. Morning temperatures will start off in the upper 30s before climbing into the mid-50s.

So while we watch snow chances end during the morning in the Arrowhead, we'll watch that chance of isolated showers (and clap of thunder) across parts of the state on Monday, maybe mixing with some snow in far northern areas. Highs will be in the 40s up north and 50s in central and southern Minnesota.

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Forecast loop from 7 AM Tuesday to 1 AM Friday. WeatherBell.

I sound like a broken record, as once again we're talking about another slower-moving mid-week system that will impact our weather Tuesday into Friday. Most of the system will be rounds of rain here in the metro, with the potential of thunder and even strong storms Tuesday night into Wednesday. As we head into Wednesday night through Friday, we'll see periods of snow - at times mixing in, at times being only snow. Up across northern Minnesota and into the Dakotas, heavier snow is likely, and at least portions of the Dakotas could see over a foot of snow through the middle of the week.

With this slow-moving system, most of the state will see the potential of at least an inch of liquid precipitation, with some areas up north easily seeing over two inches (some of those areas also have the best potential of seeing heavy snow).

Heavier snow and even blizzard conditions (more on the strong winds below) will be possible Tuesday evening through Friday morning in northwestern Minnesota, with Winter Storm Watches in place.

We will also watch very strong wind gusts across the region later Wednesday into Thursday, with wind gusts of at least 40-50 mph possible.

Mid-week storms across southern Minnesota will also bring the threat of severe weather, with Slight Risks of severe weather (or the equivalent of a Slight Risk) on both Tuesday and Wednesday across southern Minnesota. On Tuesday, the Marginal Risk of severe weather extended northward to the metro.

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A Slow Slushy Creep Into Spring
By Paul Douglas

My answer to Brett: a few warm well-timed spring getaways. And getting out of the house. Doing anything outdoors!

April is an atmospheric tease: 60F yesterday with slush on Thursday. The sun stays out much of today but more rain arrives Tuesday and Wednesday, with a few embedded T-storms, but the threat of a severe storms is less. ECMWF (European model) consistently prints out 30-40" snows for North Dakota with plowable amounts across northern Minnesota. Maybe a little slush at MSP, followed by a streak of 40s.

Hope prevails: NOAA's GFS model predicts 60s and 70s the last week of April. Oh yeah? Prove it.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

TUESDAY: Steadier rain arrives. late T-storm? Wake up 38. High 51. Chance of precipitation 90%. Wind E 15-25 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Periods of rain. Wake up 43. High 48. Chance of precipitation 90%. Wind NW 10-20 mph.

THURSDAY: Very windy. Snowy coating? Wake up 31. High 33. Chance of precipitation 80%. Wind W 20-50 mph.

FRIDAY: Some sun, cold wind. Wake up 24. High 34. Chance of precipitation 30%. Wind W 15-35 mph.

SATURDAY: Partly sunny and brisk. Wake up 26. High 42. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NW 8-13 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
April 11th

*Length Of Day: 13 hours, 18 minutes, and 14 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: 3 minutes and 3 seconds

*When Do We See 14 Hours Of Daylight: April 26th (14 hours, 2 minutes, 30 seconds)
*When Is The Sunrise At/Before 6:30 AM?: April 14th (6:30 AM)
*When Is The Sunset At/After 8 PM?: April 17th (8:01 PM)

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1929: An intense downpour occurs in Lynd, Minnesota (near Marshall), where 5.27 inches of rain would fall in 24 hours.

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We are watching two main systems on Monday across the nation. The lead one will be driving a cold front across the central United States with showers and snow showers to the north and strong storms across the Mississippi Valley. The second, out in the western United States, will bring heavy snow across portions of the Northwest and rain as far south as southern California. That system will work out toward the Plains into the middle of the week.

With the duo systems across the nation, we will be watching the heavy rain potential in the mid-Mississippi/Ohio Valley region and heavy snow in the Northwest. Feet of snow will be possible in the Cascades, and a foot or more could be possible through mid-week in parts of the Northern Plains.

A few of the storms from the southern Plains to the Ohio Valley will be on the strong side Monday with a Slight Risk of severe weather in place. Very large hail, damaging winds, and several tornadoes will be possible.

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Shards of Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs May Have Been Found in Fossil Site

More from the New York Times: "Pristine slivers of the impactor that killed the dinosaurs have been discovered, said scientists studying a North Dakota site that is a time capsule of that calamitous day 66 million years ago. The object that slammed off the Yucatán Peninsula of what is today Mexico was about six miles wide, scientists estimate, but the identification of the object has remained a subject of debate. Was it an asteroid or a comet? If it was an asteroid, what kind was it — a solid metallic one or a rubble pile of rocks and dust held together by gravity? "If you're able to actually identify it, and we're on the road to doing that, then you can actually say, 'Amazing, we know what it was,'" Robert DePalma, the paleontologist spearheading the excavation of the site, said on Wednesday during a talk at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md."

How rising sea levels threaten the lives of Louisiana's coastal residents

More from the PBS Newshour: "Louisiana's coastal crisis is already happening. Scott Sugasti is only 24 years old. And yet, the commercial fisherman has watched dense wetlands in southeast Louisiana steadily disappear from his backyard. A new United Nations climate report painted a dire picture of the Gulf of Mexico's future, warning that rising sea levels pose a critical threat for much of coastal Louisiana, including almost 7,000 residents near the bayou communities of Barataria, Crown Pointe, and Jean Lafitte, that are 15 minutes from New Orleans. Sugasti has lived and fished in the area for years. "Everything has changed," he told the PBS NewsHour. "Since I was in diapers, I've been on this bayou, and I can start remembering stuff since I was 9 or 10 years old, and nothing is exactly the same.""

More from Ars Technica: "News that Arizona's Lake Powell is slowly but surely drying up has spread far and wide. The reservoir behind the 1,320-megawatt Glen Canyon Dam and power station, Lake Powell plays an important role in providing power for some 3 million customers in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. But this year, the reservoir has hit a historic low, due to ongoing drought conditions in the region that have been attributed, at least in part, to climate change. The dam may even stop producing power if the situation continues to worsen, and this issue is not an isolated one in the American Southwest."

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).

- D.J. Kayser