Up to 10 inches of snow possible in Twin Cities from Saturday winter storm

Snowfall forecasts are starting to materialize ahead of a Saturday winter storm that could bring up to 10 inches to the Twin Cities, and a foot of snow to central Minnesota.

While there remains the potential for the system to shift south, chances are solidifying that the Twin Cities will experience its largest snowfall since December, and potentially biggest of the winter so far.

As things stand, the National Weather Service has the Twin Cities metro in the range of receiving 5-10 inches of snow, which is expected to start early Saturday morning and continue through mid-afternoon.

The NWS has held off on issuing winter storm watches or warnings due to snow already falling on Wednesday, but says it should happen at some point on Thursday.

Parts of west-central and central Minnesota meanwhile could see up to a foot of snow if the storm comes in at the high-end of projections.

Things could get a lot crazier on the slim chance the system produces more snow than current models suggest. The NWS says there’s a 10% chance of the following snowfall, which would bring a foot of snow to the Twin Cities and 15 inches to parts of west-central and northern Minnesota.

On the other hand, if the system proves weaker – as has often been the case in recent winters – the Twin Cities could see as little as 3 inches, though as things stand there’s a 90% chance of more than that.

Per its forecast discussion, the NWS says “we will have at minimum our second largest snowfall event of the season.”

“The only factors potentially holding this system back are the fast translation speed of the snow band and the possibility of further shifts south in future model runs,” it adds.