A wintery mix of freezing rain, ice and snow will arrive in the region later this evening.
The entire state, excluding the northwestern corner, is under wind advisory, with a high wind warning issued for the Red River Valley.
Blake Rafferty is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. He says winter impacts should more heavily involve the far southern region of the Valley into the west central region of Minnesota.
Rafferty says narrow bands of snowfall will have potential to drop higher accumulations of snow during the event.
"The highest totals right now run from west central Minnesota, say near Elbow Lake, up into Detroit Lakes, into Bemidji and then Baudette. Within this, widespread 2-6 inches of snow is expected, but the potential is there for 12 inches of snow locally and in very narrow areas. The probabilities are very low, because we're thinking most places are going to stay in that 2-6 range, but a couple 10-12 inch reports can't be ruled out on a very localized basis. The higher winds, overlapping from Otter Tail, Wilkin, Grand County areas... with this amount of snow, we're going to see whiteout conditions, and significant reductions in visibility especially if snow is falling."
Rafferty says winds on Saturday could sustain between 35 to 45 miles per hour, with gusts up to 60 miles per hour. The storm is expected to end Saturday evening.
Rafferty also says with freezing rains, significant travel impacts can be expected.