Blizzard warnings include western Twin Cities; 6-12 inches of snow likely

Good morning! A big weather day is here. Here's the latest forecast update on today's snowstorm.

Get to where you need to be by noon and plan to hunker down. Blizzard conditions are possible this afternoon in southwestern Minnesota, including the western Twin Cities. Most of Minnesota will see heavy snow, with up to 12 inches expected in the metro area. Rapidly falling temperatures, combined with the snow and gusty winds later today could freeze snow and ice on roads quickly.

Nursing home residents and staff in St. Cloud and Prairie Island Indian Community received the first doses of Moderna's vaccine in Minnesota yesterday.

On Tuesday, two Minnesota long-term care facilities started vaccinating their residents and staff with Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. The St. Cloud VA Community Living Center received 1,300 initial doses of the Moderna vaccine Monday, and expects a second shipment of doses in early January.

Gov. Tim Walz has said that the state was expecting about 94,800 initial doses of the Moderna vaccine arriving this week and another 32,900 doses next week. Combined with 42,900 more from Pfizer, Walz said about 250,000 total doses are expected in Minnesota by the end of the month.

Despite vaccine news, declining new case numbers, Minnesota will likely see the total death toll reaching 5,000 in the next few days.

Tuesday's 24 more deaths raised Minnesota’s toll to 4,896. More than 2,400 COVID-19 deaths have been reported during November and December. That’s half of all the deaths in a pandemic that began here in March.

Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:

Calling it "wasteful and unnecessary," Trump suggests he may not sign the COVID-19 aid bill.

In a video he tweeted last night, President Donald Trump claims that the bill delivers too much money to foreign countries, but not enough to Americans. Trump says he is "asking Congress to get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill.”