Cooking is an art form, but baking is repetition. Follow the precise recipe, don’t get too creative or cute. So it goes with big snowstorms. The recipe has to be just right.
You need a thick layer of subfreezing air firmly in place, but too much cold air pushes the storm track too far south. You need moisture from the Gulf, but too much moisture often means a surge of warmth that changes precipitation over to ice or rain.
The “sweet spot”: temperatures in the 20s, a storm track 150 to 250 miles south of MSP with a slow-moving storm capable of a prolonged period of snow.
Sunday’s whiff of April is, by definition, fleeting. The law of averages will catch up with us by late week as temperatures return to normal (more 20s) and after midweek rain we may just see some accumulating snow by Friday. It doesn’t look like a blockbuster storm, but maybe a few inches of slush? A potential for “plowable snow,” but we often seem to find a way of getting less snow than predicted, so I’m not doing cartwheels just yet.
Enjoy 50 degrees this weekend!
