We woke up this morning to the moaning of the wind, and I decided to just stay in bed a bit longer. We’ve got a long day ahead of us in which we won’t be stepping outside our door today.

A developing potent winter storm over the Central Plains this morning will become much stronger as it moves toward the Great Lakes through Monday morning. Snow will develop over western Minnesota near sunrise, with a rain/snow mix developing farther east. The rain/snow mix across eastern Minnesota and Wisconsin will quickly turn to snow later this morning as temperatures drop during the daylight hours. Steady snow will continue through early Monday morning. Accumulations of 6 to 10 inches are forecast across eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with amounts tapering off to a few inches across far western Minnesota. In addition, strong northwest winds gusting to 45 to 55 mph are expected by this evening, leading to blizzard conditions in open areas of central and southern Minnesota through early Monday morning.

A Blizzard Warning is in effect in a corridor from Morris and Long Prairie, south to Granite Falls and the far southwestern Twin Cities metro, to the Mankato and Albert Lea areas. A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for the rest of eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

Travel conditions will become dangerous later today through early Monday morning. Alternative travel plans should be considered.

I did look out the window — haze, swirling snowflakes, trees trembling in the wind — and closed the blinds again. Yesterday I saw rabbits hopping about nibbling on the food my wife left out for them; no rabbits today. Fat little fluffy birds are made of sterner stuff and are fighting over bird seed.