Rock bottom today, Friday clipper
Welcome to rock bottom.
-10 degrees at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this morning
-11 in Eden Prairie
-35 at International Falls
-41 in Embarrass
The core February cold punched freezing temps south all the way to the Gulf of Mexico this morning. The zero degree misery line made it as far south as Kentucky and Tennessee.
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The perfect recipe for bitter cold? The inner isobar of arctic high pressure overhead. Clear skies, light winds and snow cover. That's what produced maximum radiational cooling across Minnesota this morning.
Now we watch as Friday's clipper spreads snow across the state.
The latest low pressure track north of the metro suggests a coating to an inch Friday in the metro. That may be enough to gum up roads once again. Farther north, there's the potential for 3 to 5 inch snowfalls from the Iron Range through Duluth and the North Shore.
Temps moderate Friday into the 20s before one more arctic wave arrives this weekend.
Long range: 30s arrive in March?
The maps for early March show a tendency for milder air across the Upper Midwest. The so-called arctic oscillation goes positive, and that correlates with milder air in Minnesota.
30s above zero in the first week of March?
Stay tuned.