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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - A winter storm warning has been issued for the Twin Cities and parts of Minnesota this weekend due to a winter storm that's expected to move into the Upper Midwest on Saturday.
Winter storm warning
Why you should care:
The winter storm warning, which includes a large portion of central and southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, is in effect from 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Monday. Heavy snow is expected, and travel could be difficult through Monday morning.
The National Weather Service says, "travel is expected to become very difficult or impossible late Saturday night and Sunday."
A winter storm watch is also in effect for areas of west-central and southwestern Minnesota.
Heavy snow for upper Midwest
What we know:
A large piece of mid- and upper-level energy, that actually originated in Russia a couple days ago, will dive into the Upper Midwest on Saturday.
This will allow an area of low pressure to develop in a fairly traditional location to bring heavy snow to the Upper Midwest, traveling from eastern Colorado to parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. In these cases, moisture is pulled northward from the Gulf, interacts with the colder air north of the low pressure center, and spreads a narrow swath of snow from west to east.
Local perspective:
Interestingly, like every other storm system we get, it's all about location. The track of this storm is far from certain, with the exact phasing of the upper-level energy with the low-level spin and Gulf moisture is critical to the overall placement of the heavy snow band.
This is March "tournament snow"...in other words, big snow possibilities that will vary greatly county by county.
At this point, the areas in the winter storm watch and warning areas should prepare for heavy snow and difficult travel conditions as the storm unfolds late Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. It needs to be said that with a spring snow event there is tremendous uncertainty of the exact storm track, so it can be next to impossible to nail down exact snow totals up until a few hours of the onset of the storm.
Where could the heaviest snow fall?
Dig deeper:
All of that said, this is a scenario that often brings double-digit totals in the heaviest band of snow. For the moment, the highest likelihood for those numbers will be toward southeast Minnesota and across southwest Wisconsin.
However, pockets of heavy snow are possible for the greater Twin Cities as the storm intensifies early Sunday morning.
We will keep you updated with the very latest as this unfolds through the weekend.
Stay with FOX 9 for updates and download the FOX 9 Weather app for location-based alerts.