Seventeen in a row: January will finish above average

Welcome to the 17th straight warmer than average month in the Twin Cities.

In spite of some early January sub-zero cold our extended thaw has boosted temps into warmer than average territory this month. Through January 24th temperatures are running 3.6 degrees warmer than average at MSP Airport.

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Twin Cities NWS

Cooler air eases in this week, but overall temperatures will likely remain about 5 degrees above average through the rest of January. That means January will finish as the 17th straight warmer than average month in the Twin Cities.

Here's more on our extended warmer than average streak from the Minnesota DNR Climate Working Group.

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The average monthly temperature has been above the 1981-2010 normal for sixteen months in a row in the Twin Cities (including December 2016).

The last time the Twin Cities had a below normal month was August 2015. Every month since then has been above normal, in some cases much above normal. The streak continues into December 2016, when despite a significant but brief cold snap, mild weather prevailed enough that December finished above normal.

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Minnesota DNR Climate Working Group: Note, I've added the likely temp range for January 2017 in red pending final data.

Cooler, but still above average

Cooler temps filter into Minnesota on northwest winds the next 24 hours. Daytime highs over much of Minnesota hover in the 20s through Friday. But temperatures in the 30s return to the Twin Cities by Monday.

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15-day temperatures for MSP via Custom Weather

There are still signs of a colder air mass as February approaches. A couple more nights of sub-zero temps for the Twin Cities and several more nights up north seem likely.

It's still January.

Brushed by slush

About 1" to 3" of fresh snow fell in the Twin Cities Wednesday as expected. Southern Minnesota posted some impressive totals. Northern Iowa snowfall approached 1-foot at a few locations.

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Twin Cities NWS

Here's a list of snowfall totals from the Twin Cities NWS.

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Twin Cities NWS

We'll see a few flurries this weekend across Minnesota. Our next chance for significant snow arrives next Monday and Tuesday, and favors the northern half of Minnesota.

Woman survives tornado, in bathtub

Remember that old advice of riding out a tornado in the relative protection of your bathtub? It appears that worked for one Texas woman in the recent tornado outbreak. Capital Weather Gang has this incredible story of survival.

EPA may be "scrubbing" climate change web pages

News reports and public pressure may have caused EPA to tack from fully deleting climate change on the EPA site. But scrubbing is apparently happening. Here's an update on my earlier post today from The Hill.

https://twitter.com/Timothy_Cama/status/824307152596697088

Going rogue

As a scientist in America I never thought I'd live to see this. Many agencies fearful of the wholesale deletion of climate data and gag orders on staffers are communicating through proxy twitter accounts.

How dreary are you?

The irony of warmer winters in Minnesota? They tend to run cloudier. We're all feeling a little gray around the edges these days, and some sun would be appreciated.

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Gray sky in Victoria. Paul Huttner MPR News.

MPR weather fan Roberta Mistretta lives near Barnum and has had a tough time getting the sun to shine on her solar array in 2016. Roberta shares these December numbers.

December total was 156 kilowatt hours, five days of full sun .

2016 the WORST year since I have started keeping records with only a total of 4129 kilowatt hours for the year.  It has been progressively fewer days of sun each year since 2010.

One interesting fact about Minnesota's climate is that the western part of the state is sunnier overall than the east. Cloudy days increase as you move closer to Lake Superior.

Here's an interesting look at the "dreariness index" across the USA developed by climate watcher Brian Brettschneider .

How do you define dreary weather? Is it the amount of rain/snow? How about the frequency of precipitation? Many people feel that cloudy weather is dreary. Of course dreary does not have a scientific definition so some arbitrary measure must be developed.

In previous posts, I have looked at total rainfall, number of wet days, and cloud cover independently of one another. Now seems like a good time to combine these variables to come up with a single composite value.

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Brian Brettschneider

Now I know why I had an extra spring in my step living in Tucson.

10 years at MPR

I just realized that it was 10 years ago this week I started doing daily weather chats on MPR News stations. My former partner in weather crime Craig Edwards and I started part time in January of 2007.  I was then hired to be MPR's first Chief Meteorologist in July of 2007.

It's been a great run, covering an amazing array of tornado outbreaks, mega-floods and developing MPR's Updraft blog and Climate Cast. Knock on wood, here's hoping for another 10 great years of weather and climate coverage ahead on MPR.

Thanks for your support of all things MPR weather over the past 10 years.

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John Abraham, Paul Huttner and Kerri Miller at the MPR Minnesota State Fair.