A long-duration snowfall left a thick blanket of snow across southern and eastern Minnesota on Thanksgiving weekend of 2025.
With cold air already in place, an area of low pressure moved from southern Kansas toward southern Lake Michigan between Friday November 28 and Sunday November 30, 2026. This track placed Minnesota on the cold side of the storm, ensuring that all precipitation would fall as snow.
The snow began in southwestern and western Minnesota on Friday afternoon, as the first wave of lift advanced into the region. Overnight and into Saturday morning, the snow began focusing over Iowa and far southern Minnesota, but then expanded northwestward as the parent system grew and intensified. The snow fell through the afternoon and evening in southern and eastern Minnesota, not ending in the far southeast and northeast until after midnight on Sunday. The snow snarled traffic and slowed return travel for many people going into or out of Minnesota after Thanksgiving.
The heaviest snow fell in Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin, where totals of 10-18 inches were common. In Minnesota, the snow fell for 12-24 hours, but was primarily light to moderate in intensity, with the greatest bursts occurring in the far south, where accumulations of 8-10 inches were common. Totals of six inches or greater blanketed the southeastern fifth of the state, basically along and southeast of a line from Rock County in the southwestern corner of the state, to Hastings. Accumulating snows of three inches or more covered about 40% of Minnesota, with about 60% of the state receiving an inch or more. The snow was mostly concentrated in the south and east, but the circulation allowed some enhancement from Lake Superior, with 3-6 inches also falling in and around Duluth and Two Harbors.
The highest snowfall accumulations appear to have been in Blue Earth and Faribault counties, where CoCoRaHS observers near Minnesota Lake reported 12.5 inches, with 12 inches near Blue Earth. The highest official total from a National Weather Service Cooperative observer was 10.0 inches at Grand Meadow, with 9.8 inches at Winnebago and 9.0 inches at Windom. Of Minnesota's major "first order" stations, Rochester reported 8.2 inches, Duluth reported 5.3 inches, the Twin Cities reported 4.7 inches, and 3.2 inches fell in St. Cloud. International Falls, largely missing the action, received just 0.8 inches of snow.
Revised December 2, 2025
KAB