Winter storm could bring 4-8 inches of snow to southern Minn.

Keep your boots on. A winter storm taking aim at Minnesota could dump 4 to 8 inches of snow south of the Interstate 94 corridor beginning Sunday.

The winter storm watch includes much of southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities, according to Joe Calderone, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

"There's still some uncertainty as to the hour it will hit and the amounts," he said. "But there's enough confidence there that we can issue a watch from Sunday morning through Monday afternoon."

The storm likely will sweep an area from St. Cloud to Minneapolis to Red Wing, according to the watch issued by the Weather Service. Roads likely will be covered by snow, making for difficult driving conditions on Sunday and into Monday, forecasters said.

The forecast is just a "straight winter storm," Calderone said. Winds will blow from the east at 10 to 15 miles per hour, so it likely won't whip up blizzard conditions, he said.

That may not be good enough news for some who were thinking more about their lawn mowers than their snowblowers after springlike temperatures taunted Minnesotans last week.

The reality, however, is that "the calendar still says it's winter," Calderone said.

Mary Lynn Smith • 612-673-4788