Warmest in 16 days, wintery relapse Thursday with cold and more snow
Coming up for air
It was nice while it lasted.
Temperatures soared from the mid 30s to the lower 40s as advertised in southern Minnesota Wednesday. The Twin Cities metro area topped out at 37 degrees, the warmest day in 16 days.
It was nice to drive on ice free streets for a change, with relatively stress free commutes. Wednesday's warm up was just the tip of a nose of Chinook driven warm air in the central United States that boosted temps into the 60s as close as Kansas.
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Southwest Minnesota near the Buffalo Ridge posted the mildest temps Wednesday. Here are some of the slushy numbers.
37 degrees high at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Wednesday
16 days since we've been that warm at MSP (38 on Dec. 2)
43 degrees at Marshall on Wednesday
44 degrees at Canby
45 degrees at Madison, Minn.!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled winter programming.
Colder winds, and snow return to Minnesota Thursday.
As temperatures fall into the 20s and teens again, a weather disturbance sailing overhead will trigger snow. Snow should break out in western Minnesota Thursday morning, and spread east toward St. Cloud and the Twin Cities about or after lunchtime into Thursday afternoon.
It will likely be snowing for late afternoon rush Thursday in the metro area, and there may be enough snow down to gum up some roads and ramps again.
A broad band of 1 to 2 inches looks likely between St. Cloud and the Interstate-90 corridor, with some 3-inch totals possible in areas that see more sustained snowfall. here's the North American Meso morning snowfall output, which is among the most aggressive with totals.
Bottom line: Be ready for more snow Thursday afternoon and evening. Most of the snow should taper off in the metro from west to east by around midnight.
Bigger storm headed from K.C. to Quad Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago Sunday
You may want to read on if you are planning travel south on I-35 or I-90/94 this weekend.
A significant winter storm winds for from Kansas City to Milwaukee and Chicago. Right now the latest track favors a swath of 3 to 6 inches or more from Kansas City to eastern Iowa and the Quad Cities, to Rockford and Milwaukee Saturday night and Sunday.
Here's a look st the potential for an 8-inch snow bull's eye around Kansas City Saturday night into Sunday.
And here's the likely snow stripe through eastern Iowa through Rockford, Chicago's northwest suburbs and Milwaukee.
Having spent several years forecasting in Chicago, I can tell you the far northwest Chicago suburbs seem to be snow magnets. Folks in McHenry County, Ill., up to the Lake Geneva area in Wisconsin, may see the heaviest totals with this system -- and that could be over 6 inches.
Merry White Christmas!