Alaska -46: Winter heading for Minnesota

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Forecast lows are colder than -40 in northern Alaska tonight.

You knew it wouldn't last forever.

Bitterly cold arctic air is pooling in Alaska. It was a bone chilling -46 in Bettles, Alaska early this morning. The balmy "daytime" high in Bettles was -38. Ouch.

That mind-numbing arctic air mass is gaining strength under 24 hour darkness in northern Alaska, and there are signs it may make a move on Minnesota the first week of December.

Of course it will modify some, and I don't think we'll see anything approaching -40 in Minnesota yet. But it's going to feel like winter around here very soon. Real winter. We could see our first sub-zero readings of the season in Minnesota in the next two weeks.

There's an atmospheric connection between Alaska and Minnesota. Huge dips in the jet stream called "long waves" tend to space out so that Minnesota and Alaska have the inversely related temperatures. When it's cold in Alaska it's usually warm in Minnesota, and visa-versa. We can look to Alaska before a big pattern change in winter to get and idea of what's headed our way.

Round one of our colder temperature pattern appears to be moving in next week. As I posted this morning, that could mean enough cold and moisture to make for a white Thanksgiving. It looks like the real mother lode of cold air may come calling the first week of December.

In the short run, our weather will improve dramatically as we head toward the weekend. Look for plenty of sunshine Friday and Saturday, and temperatures will make a run well into the 50s by Saturday afternoon. Clouds and rain will increase ahead of the overall pattern change on Sunday.

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Get out and enjoy one last shot of mild sunny Indian Summer weather the next few days. Winter is on the way. And this time, I really mean it!

PH