It's early, but our first major snow of the year is now starting to reach the western metro area.
For those of you heading in that direction, the roads are already becoming a problem according to MNDOT.
The National Weather Service does say you can expect similar conditions to impact metro area roads this afternoon.
While temperatures are around freezing, much of the first snow that falls will melt on contact. However, according to News Talk 830 WCCO Meteorologist Paul Douglas, with snow rates of an inch per hour possible it will build up enough to cause driving issues.
Douglas is estimating between 3-6 inches with higher amounts to the west and north side of the Twin Cities. He says this will surely set a record for most snow on this date, and has a chance to be our second snowiest October day ever, with only the 1991 Halloween blizzard seeing more.
National Weather Service Climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld told Douglas Tuesday on the WCCO Morning News, "The kind of biggest deal about it is the time of year. I mean, if we were talking about 3 to 6 inches of snow in December or January, you guarantee that nobody is going to remember it for more than a couple weeks, right? But in in October and especially, you know, before the very end of October, at least it gets the attention of climatologists and people who really kind of follow these statistics because the top 10 for daily snowfalls in October, you know that you're looking at amounts that are mostly an inch a little more than an inch. So all we need is a few inches of snow to break toe kind of break into that top three for daily snowfall in October, and this will also be quite likely unless the forecast really busts. It'll probably be the heaviest snowfall so early in the season. I don't believe the Twin Cities has seen a snowfall greater than three inches before the 29th of October."
