update 2 on the 651/612 storm for Wednesday night into Thursday #mnwx

[hpbear149]

Ok, just got done taking a look at the latest observations and guidance, and there's not too much change in the general setup here. Some specifics about how the lows interact do change a bit, but as for what they do to us, not much change at all. But it does put a few flies in the ointment that can make for some real screwy results between neighborhoods, that I'll do my best to nail down tomorow night.

So getting down to the nitty gritty, the setup is like this:

More clouds than sun but very mild tomorrow, highs in the low to mid 40's.

tomorrow evening, time to break this down into increments of 3 hours a piece.

• 6pm: temp near 40, mainly cloudy, patchy drizzle or isolated rain showers
• 9pm: temp in the mid 30's, mainly cloudy, still isolated showers, mainly rain but don't be surprised about a bit of sleet
• midnight: temps near freezing (32F), scattered showers, rain turning to freezing rain and/or sleet (less than 0.03")
• 3AM Thursday: temps in the mid 20's, some patchy light snow develops from the west, a dusting to start
• 6am: temps near 20, the snow becomes steady light snow, just in time for the am rush, 1-2" possible the next few hours
• 9am: temps in the mid teens, steadier snow builds in, another 1-2" possible west, 2-3" east. winds pick up from the NW as well to 15-25mph, bringing about some blowing and drifting of the snow
• noon: temps near 10F, steady snow continues, as well as blowing and drifting snow. it will be more powdery, but another 1-2" are possible in the NW metro, 2-3" in the SE
• 3PM: temps in the upper single digits above zero F, the falling snow starts to taper off SW to NE, but blowing and drifting snow continues. another inch is possible, the rush hour may get ugly
• 6pm: temps in the mid single digits, falling snow over, but blowing and drifting continues at times
• 9pm: temps in the low to mid single digits, the winds start to tail off, so the blowing/drifting will start to calm down

As for storm totals in the metro; at this point, it's looking like 3-5" in the northwest metro, and 5-8" in the southeast metro. these totals may change for specific areas, which is why I'm holding off graphics for 1 more day. But I am fairly confident that this will be the sequence of events.

So please watch out, be prepared, and keep tuned in either here, your favorite news outlet, or the National Weather Service.