Douglas: Snow possible, but mostly north of the Twin Cities

Oh, the indignity. Kansas City, Mo., has picked up nearly twice as much snow as Minneapolis-St. Paul. In fact, the northern suburbs of Dallas and Atlanta just saw nearly as much snow as the metro this winter (8.7 inches). Amarillo, Texas reported 6 foot drifts, for skiers who have a strange urge to ski Texas.

According to DJ Kayser at Praedictix, this is the 28th-least-snowy start to a winter in the Twin Cities since 1871. We will add 1-3 inches from Saturday into Sunday morning, maybe 4 inches in the Brainerd Lakes area, but snowfall across much of Minnesota has been a third to a half of what it should have been since October. It’s not my fault.

One faint silver lining: Despite a few numbing days in January, “heat degree data” suggests we’ve saved 17% on heating costs since August.

Snow over the next 24 hours will be somewhere between nuisance and plowable, with greater amounts the farther north you go. A cold start to next week gives way to a late-week thaw, but a more-polar-vortex-worthy chunk of air may trigger subzero fun between Jan. 19 and Jan. 24. Oh, boy.