Slushy Snow Sunday Night Into Monday

Forecast loop from 6 PM Sunday to 6 PM Monday.

Snow - heavy at times - will continue to impact parts of central and southern Minnesota to the North Shore Sunday Night into Monday. The heaviest snow will be with the initial band of snow as it moves through this evening, potentially producing a quick 2-4" of wet, slushy snow with hourly rates of 1"+ possible. As we head through the overnight and into Monday, snowfall rates and intensity greatly decrease, leading to lighter snow. Note that the Monday morning commute will likely be hampered in some way due to the Sunday Night snow.

A widespread 1-5" of snow is expected across central and southern Minnesota to the North Shore with this system pushing through Sunday into Monday, with isolated heavier totals along the North Shore and in parts of central Minnesota - including potentially the metro.

Due to the expected snow, Winter Weather Advisories are in place across the region. In the metro, they go through 11 AM Monday.

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30s For Monday

We'll keep an eye on the snow showers as we head through Monday here in the metro. Temperatures will remain fairly steady in the low to mid-30s, with that slight warm-up allowing road conditions to become a bit better out there.

Temperatures will range from the teens up along the Red River Valley to the 30s across much of the state on Monday as we watch those continuing snow/mixed precipitation chances. By late in the day, some sunnier skies will be possible up in northwestern Minnesota.

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More Snow For The Second Half Of The Week

6-Hour Precipitation Between 6 AM Wednesday And 6 AM Saturday

Meanwhile, we are tracking a system that could bring another prolonged period of snow to the region as we head into the Wednesday through Friday (and, depending on what model you look at, Saturday) timeframe. There are still numerous questions as to what'll happen with this system - including the difference in the overall timeframe of snow - but there is agreement at this moment that the heaviest snow with this system will fall in the Thursday Night to Friday period. We'll keep an eye on this over the next several days to see what overall impacts will occur - and how much snow we might have to find a way to add to those already humongous snow piles along your driveway and in parking lots.

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Temperature Trend

There will be a slight trend downward in temperatures this week - especially toward the back half and into the weekend. However, that may just mean highs dropping from the mid-30s to the upper 20s and low 30s, with overnight lows in the teens. While that isn't majorly cold air for this time of year by any means, our average high on Monday is 37F, and next Sunday it's up at 40F - so these highs will be up to 10F degrees below average. Highs look to start slowly climbing back upward next week.

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Slushy Monday - Significant Snow Late Week?
By Paul Douglas

It has been a very strange winter. Little or no snow for big city centers from Washington DC to Philadelphia and New York. While the suburbs of Los Angeles have seen slush, with 5-10 FEET of snow in the hills north of LA! Enough snow to buckle rooftops and leave some residents trapped in their homes.

Minnesota has seen its fair share of rain, ice, slush and powder, and more is coming this week.

Today will be more of a nuisance snow event. We get off to a slushy start with 1-3"; a few suburbs may pick up 4" before skies brighten this afternoon.

Another long-duration snow event is shaping up from late Wednesday into Friday night. NOAA's GFS predicts insane amounts of snow. ECMWF (European model) prints out less, but still a respectable, plowable snowstorm. It's still too early for specifics, but travel may become very tricky the latter half of the week. Where is spring? Rain is possible 8 days from today.

Highs remain in the 30s, close to average. Expect more potholes. Big, gaping, moon-like craters.

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Paul's Extended Twin Cities Forecast

MONDAY: Snow tapers to flurries. Wake up 32. High 36. Chance of precipitation 80%. Wind N 10-20 mph.

TUESDAY: More clouds than sunshine. Wake up 28. High 37. Chance of precipitation 10%. Wind NE 8-13 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Light snow arrives late PM hours. Wake up 28. High 34. Chance of precipitation 70%. Wind E 10-20 mph.

THURSDAY: Snow becomes heavier. Wake up 29. High 33. Chance of precipitation 90%. Wind E 10-20 mph.

FRIDAY: Plowable snow tapers to flurries. Wake up 28. High 32. Chance of precipitation 80%. Wind N 10-20 mph.

SATURDAY: Light snow or flurries. Wale up 20. High 30. Chance of precipitation 40%. Wind E 8-13 mph.

SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy, better travel. Wake up 23. High 33. Chance of precipitation 20%. Wind SE 5-10 mph.

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Minneapolis Weather Almanac And Sun Data
March 6th

*Length Of Day: 11 hours, 24 minutes, and 45 seconds
*Daylight GAINED Since Yesterday: 3 minutes and 7 seconds

*When do we see 12 Hours of Daylight?: March 18th (12 hours, 2 minutes, 31 seconds)
*Earliest Sunrise Before DST Begins: March 11th (6:33 AM)
*Latest Sunset Before DST Begins: March 11th (6:13 PM)

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This Day in Weather History
March 6th

1836: Unusual cold for March lasts for 12 days at Ft. Snelling. During this time, 7 nights were in the double-digits below zero.

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National Weather Forecast

Wintry precipitation will continue to be possible on Monday from the western United States across the northern tier of states with not only snow but a rain/snow mix and some icing. Some storms will be possible along the northern Gulf Coast into the Southeast.

From Sunday through Tuesday several additional feet of snow is expected to fall across the Sierra Nevada. Meanwhile, several inches of snow will fall across the northern tier of states as well.

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Wisconsin cave holds tantalizing clues to ancient climate changes, future shifts

More from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: "Even in their dark isolation from the atmosphere above, caves can hold a rich archive of local climate conditions and how they've shifted over the eons. Formed over tens of thousands of years, speleothems — rock formations unique to caves better known as stalagmites and stalactites — hold secrets to the ancient environments from which they formed. A newly published study of a stalagmite found in a cave in southern Wisconsin reveals previously undetected history of the local climate going back thousands of years. The new findings provide strong evidence that a series of massive and abrupt warming events that punctuated the most recent ice age likely enveloped vast swaths of the Northern Hemisphere. The research, conducted by a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, appears March 2 in the journal Nature Geoscience. It's the first study to identify a possible link between ice age warm-ups recorded in the Greenland ice sheet — known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events — and climate records from deep within the interior of central North America."

Trailblazing Hydrogen Plant Could 'Cannibalize' Green Power from Nova Scotia Grid

More from The Energy Mix: "Nova Scotia has approved plans for what could be North America's first commercial-scale green hydrogen facility, amid lingering concerns that powering the plant could cannibalize renewable energy that's vital to meeting the province's climate goals. Early in February, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (ECC) Minister Timothy Halman conditionally approved EverWind Fuels LLC's environmental assessment for its Point Tupper green hydrogen project. The facility will produce and export 200,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year to the European Union by 2025, according to proposals for the first phase of the project. Construction is set to begin this spring."

How Alaska's coastal communities are racing against erosion

More from Grist: "A sandy bluff towers above the beach in Dillingham, Alaska. Every year, Alaska Native resident Ken Shade watches as a little more of his land falls over the edge, into the sea. Dillingham is just one example of a small Alaskan town with a big erosion problem. Around the state, dozens of coastal communities are watching their coastlines crumble, losing at least 3 feet of land per year. Critical infrastructure such as airport runways, fuel tanks, and schools are in danger. Many Alaska Natives have been hard hit: Now, with climate change altering weather patterns, melting permafrost, and reducing sea ice, the land these communities are built on is falling into the sea. Shade has already moved his house farther away from the bluff once, about 25 years ago, to save it from falling over the edge. The process took him a whole summer. After digging around the foundation and jacking up the house, he slid the building onto a trailer built out of old car axles, then dragged the whole thing using heavy machinery. His neighbor, a mechanic, took a different approach and tried to stabilize the bluff by building a wall in front of it using dozens of old cars. "It doesn't work too well," Shade said. Now when he sets out fishing nets, he catches car parts along with the salmon."

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- D.J. Kayser