***MAJOR SNOWSTORM***

I used my AFD for this forecast from the site I forecast for....You can see I'm still having a hard time buying into mixed precip across Barron,Polk and Rusk Counties...The model did move the storm track more East...Read below for all the info....This area still may pick up heavy snow yet...One heck of a hard storm to forecast STILL....Giving all forecasters a big headache!

This discussion will focus around the major winter storm that is forecasted to plow through the area this weekend....Very little in the way of longer term discussion today..
Current Conditions...
SFC OBS this morning showed temps have warmed up rather nice through the over night hours...Temps in the lower to middle teens through out much of the area...Some lower 20 found in our Central areas....Radar is showing a light band of snow this morning over our Southern MN into part of our Southern zones of WI this is lining up rather well with models ...Skies for the most part mainly cloudy some breaks up in our far sections of MN...This area should fill in rather fast this morning....
SFC Analysis...
This morning we find a cold front in far Northwestern MN...This reaches back into MT to one area of low pressure then back to yet another area of low pressure over ID...Cold front in MN is forecasted to drift Southeast and for the most get hung up in Central MN through out the day on Sunday..This front should clear most our MN zones ,however in WI the cold front will not clear these zones until after 00z Monday....Meanwhile the low pressure is forecasted to dip into far Southeast WY/Far Western NE...Low should be around 986 MBS at that time...By Sunday 06z the low should be into South Central NE..Around Sunday 12z low move into far Western IA and should be around 992 MBS..0Z Monday the low races into North Central WI...The track of this storm system will put all of MN,along with muck of WI zones in the prime area for heavy snow...Our Southern zones on WI looks like mainly mixed percip through the period...I'm still concerned that this area may very well see heavy snow also come Sunday afternoon..With the track a little more East....WAA has kicked in over night through the FA...Temps yesterday held in the single digits,but have warmed up...See Current Conditions....
Today through tonight...
Cold front is forecasted to move into the FA,Along with strong WAA ongoing today, this will cause some light snow along with some light fresszing drizzle...Our MN zones could pick up 1 to 2 inches of snow today...Moisture starts flowing into the area tonight Snow will become more widespread as the low grows closer,again our Southern WI zones will be on the warm sector so mixed percip Our Northern WI zones should be all snow...
Sunday into Sunday night....
Heavy snow looks like a good bet for much of our MN,and WI zones,not to sound like a skipping record...Our far Southern zones still could be mixed percip....I'm still having a little hard time buying into this right now,and have been all week as one model kept it's track,while other models went all over the place...Now GFS,NAM,are just about on the same page as the ECMWF...If this trend keep up through the day I may have to add our Southern WI zones into the heavy snow area and drop some of our far Western areas of MN out of the heavy snow area..This is something that will need to watch very closely through out the day...I will be updating this forecast later today or tonight...
One thing is for sure with all the models it will become windy so with the heavy snow forecasted through out parts of the FA blizzard conditions will be possible....Travel will become nearly if not impossible on Sunday and Sunday night...Temps will also go no where but down for much of the work week ahead...
No time for long term forecast attm.....