textproduct: Twin Cities

KEY MESSAGES

- Freezing rain & sleet impacts continue through mid to late morning across southern Minnesota & western Wisconsin.

- Snow continues into this afternoon across central Minnesota with accumulations of 2-4" expected.

- Scattered thunderstorms likely Friday evening across southern Minnesota & west-central Wisconsin. The strongest storms could contain small hail.

- Another round of accumulating snow Friday through Saturday across central Minnesota.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 421 AM CDT Thu Apr 2 2026

This Morning: Our wintry system remains on track, with accumulating snow continuing across central Minnesota & mostly freezing rain occurring from southwest Minnesota through west- central Wisconsin. As of 4 AM, ice has been accreting on grassy areas & elevated surfaces/objects, but has been slow to make roads icy outside of western Wisconsin. Expect this to change by sunrise as air temperatures & road surface temperatures continue to drop as colder temperatures are advected into the area. Ice accumulations (on elevated surfaces) of around a quarter inch continue to be expected across eat-central Minnesota & western Wisconsin, with amounts closer to 0.3-0.5" still possible where we have the Ice Storm Warning towards Eau Claire. We have lowered ice accumulations across western Minnesota as the freezing rain onset was delayed until well after midnight, so have downgraded several counties to a Winter Weather Advisory for lighter ice accumulations.

The worst travel conditions are expected between 6 AM & 10 AM when air & surface temperatures will be at their coldest, but solar insolation should start warming the roads back up above freezing by mid-morning. Ice accretions could still continue until noon on trees & other elevated objects when we should see precipitation change over to a cold rain for the afternoon.

This afternoon: Areas with the wintry mix this morning change over to a cold rain, with isolated ice storm impacts from fallen tree limbs & power outages still possible where we're expecting the heaviest ice accumulations across western Wisconsin. The snow begins to wrap up across central Minnesota by late afternoon with snowfall accumulations totally 2-4".

Tonight: We'll see a lull in the precipitation with most areas staying dry tonight & overnight. Light freezing rain & snow begins to spread across western Minnesota early tomorrow morning.

Friday: Precipitation spreads across the rest of Minnesota & Wisconsin through the morning. This second round looks to be a cleaner transition between rain & snow, but light freezing rain & sleet is possible during the morning across west-central Minnesota. Snow accumulations don't really begin until later in the afternoon across west-central Minnesota, all other locations should stay warm enough for rain.

Friday night: Widespread rain showers are expected across southern Minnesota & western Wisconsin during the evening, with enough elevated instability likely present to result in scattered thunderstorms. The strongest storms could contain small hail given the very strong wind shear over the region & low freezing levels. A dry slot moves into the area after the showers & thunderstorms move through with little or nor precipitation the expected through the rest of the overnight. Farther north, the rain changes over to snow across central Minnesota & into western Wisconsin. Still uncertain where exactly the rain-snow line will set up, but generally expect it along the latitude of the Twin Cities metro. The heaviest snow will develop where a region of banded snowfall is expected to develop, generally between Brainerd & St. Cloud.

Saturday: The snow will be heaviest Saturday morning into early saturday afternoon, again with the heaviest amounts generally expected to be across central Minnesota. Snowfall amounts begin to taper off through the afternoon with the snow expected to end across western Wisconsin by midnight saturday night. Snowfall amounts of 4-6" are likely within the heavier region of banded snow, while lighter amounts of 1-2" are likely elsewhere. Can't rule out some isolated amounts in excess of 6" within the snow band. Accumulations on roads & surfaces will likely be negligible outside of the region of heaviest banded snowfall owning to the fact that most of the snow will be falling during peak solar insolation Saturday.

Looking ahead: We quiet down for a few days after these two systems with mainly dry conditions expected into the middle of next week. A few transient waves could provide some light precipitation chances, mainly across southern Minnesota. Temperatures remain below normal through Tuesday, but should bounce back to near or above normal for the latter half of the week.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z FRIDAY/

Issued at 1234 PM CDT Thu Apr 2 2026

Wintry precip is ongoing this afternoon with IFR conditions. Still lots of -FZRA/UP reports, but seeing more straight rain starting to come in across southern Minnesota. Precip will come to an end late this evening, but IFR conditions will persist as cigs remain low. Winds turn northerly overnight before returning to the east by tomorrow morning ahead of our next system. For now, the onset of precip remains just outside of this forecast period.

KMSP...Brief lull in the moderate rain before we see the last push of heavier rainfall for today's system. There may still be a few snowflakes or ice pellets mixed in at times, but generally temperatures have warmed just above freezing. We may see a short window of MVFR cigs tomorrow before our second round of precip moves in during the afternoon. There's a chance for some thunder tomorrow afternoon/evening, but have left this out of the TAF for now.

/OUTLOOK FOR KMSP/ SAT...MVFR/IFR cigs. -RASN in morning. Wind NW 10-20G30 kts. SUN...Chc MVFR cigs. Wind NW 10-15 kts. MON...VFR. Wind NW 10-15 kts.

MPX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

MN...Winter Weather Advisory until 7 PM CDT this evening for Benton- Chippewa-Douglas-Kanabec-Kandiyohi-Lac Qui Parle-Meeker- Mille Lacs-Morrison-Pope-Stearns-Stevens-Swift-Todd- Yellow Medicine. WI...None.