A powerful winter storm system will bring heavy snow to much of South Dakota, North Dakota and northern Minnesota this week. Heavy snow and strong wind will create blowing snow and blizzard conditions.

We have both rain and shine in the forecast for this weekend. Temperatures will be warmer than average, with scattered showers and thunderstorms likely through Saturday night. While most places will get at least a little rain, there will be plenty of “dry time” between the scattered thunderstorms. The overall severe threat is low, but one or two strong to severe storms will be possible, especially on Saturday into Saturday night. Rainfall amounts will depend on where thunderstorms develop. Our best chance of rain will be late Saturday into Saturday night with locally heavy rainfall amounts of a quarter to a half inch or more possible. Storms will exit the region late Saturday night, leaving us with dry, pleasant weather for the first part of next week. Much cooler, fall like weather is likely by late next week.

The rest of this afternoon will be mostly cloudy, with scattered showers and thundershowers likely. An additional tenth of an inch or more of rain will be possible in some lo...