Blizzard Conditions Accompanying Weekend Snowstorm

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

December 8,2012; 12:26PM,EST

Making the situation worse for travelers, blizzard conditions will accompany the snowstorm invading the northern Plains and Upper Midwest this weekend.
Snow will continue to spread from Montana to the Dakotas this evening before crawling eastward into and through the Upper Midwest tonight into Sunday.
The heaviest snow, totaling 6 to 12 inches, will blanket central Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Duluth, Minn., and Marquette, Mich., lie in the heart of this zone.
Drivers are urged to use caution as the snow will create slick and treacherous travel throughout the northern Plains and Upper Midwest, including on Interstates 29, 35, 75 and 94.

For a larger version of this map, please visit the AccuWeather.com Winter Weather Center.

Along the southern end of the snow zone -- south of I-90 in Minnesota and toward Madison, Wis., and Saginaw, Mich. -- the majority of the snow will fall on grassy surfaces with roads becoming slushy.
However, an invasion of bitterly cold air Sunday night will cause these slushy spots on roads and sidewalks to turn icy.
Despite being snow-covered earlier in the day, roads will also become slushy northward to Minneapolis and Eau Claire, Wis., Sunday afternoon with the danger of icy roads to follow for Sunday evening.
It is not just falling snow threatening to cause hazards for motorists, but also blizzard conditions as biting winds significantly whip the snow around. Visibility will become dramatically reduced as snow drifts form.
Such conditions will unfold in a west-to-east fashion across the Dakotas and western Minnesota tonight into Sunday morning, occurring for many after the heaviest snow blankets the ground and roads.

Eastern Minnesota, home to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and western Wisconsin will be subject to the blowing and drifting snow Sunday night.

The howling winds will also continue to drive arctic air across the Rockies and Plains into Sunday, setting the stage for a second zone of snow to dive southward from Montana into New Mexico (including Albuquerque) and West Texas.

Temperatures will plunge below zero across northern Montana and northern and western North Dakota tonight, then will be held 10 to 20 degrees below today's highs from North Dakota to northern Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas panhandle on Sunday.
The blustery winds will create even colder AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures.

The cold air will spread across more of the southern Plains and Midwest on Monday as the snowstorm reaches Quebec and severe weather threatens some communities in the South.

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