This can't be happening...

May I be excused? pic.twitter.com/RTK8asuiVw

— Paul Douglas (@pdouglasweather) April 11, 2018

Dear. God. 

You're reading that correctly: The potential for 12-plus inches of snow in the metro this weekend. The deathless winter of 2017-'18 will keep digging its icy claws into Minnesota, it seems, even as the calendar approaches May.

We asked Douglas to give up some context, some hope... any hope at all. 

"I don't yet trust the models, no," he told City Pages. "But it's correct to say that the two main NOAA weather models, GFS and NAM, are printing out very significant snowfall amounts now -- need to see a few more runs to see if this is a fluke or a real trend. It's not a done-deal yet, but people should be aware that Saturday could be a real mess."

Wonderful. 

Follow-up question, Paul: What did we do to deserve this? 

"We are a distant suburb of Winnipeg," the weatherman responded. "We should have expected this. Chalk it up to a northern climate and a dash of weather-weirding."

Perfect. 

Here's a nice encapsulation of how spring is going:

Twin Cities normally sees its first 60° temp in late March, but this year (as of 4/10), there have only been 2 days this spring where temps have reached 50 degrees! Incredible, since the normal high today is 56°. Latest 60° temp on record is 4/29/1874 (2nd latest 4/26/2013) #mnwx pic.twitter.com/1rRV6VMLwP

— NWS Twin Cities (@NWSTwinCities) April 11, 2018