Milder Sunday temps; rain/snow mix on Tuesday

One week ago, we were talking about record warm temperatures in Minnesota.

In the Twin Cities, we were in the middle of a 6 day stretch where we set 4 new record high temps and also tied another record high (Feb. 18).

St. Cloud and Eau Claire, WI  were among the many spots that saw records tumble last weekend.

This weekend, we're much closer to normal late February weather.

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Milder temps

Our Sunday highs will be a few degrees warmer than yesterday, with 30s common over southern and central Minnesota, and mostly 20s over the north. Far northwestern Minnesota might top out in the teens.

Our average high temperature this time of year in the Twin Cities is 33 degrees.

Monday's highs will feature 40s over southern and central Minnesota, and 30s over much of the north:

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Similar high temps are expected on Tuesday:

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High temperatures cool a bit for Wednesday through Friday.

The Twin Cities metro area is likely to see highs in the 30s Wednesday through Friday, rebounding to the 40s next weekend.

Last zero?

According to the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service, the average date of the last zero degree or colder reading of winter in the Twin Cities is March 2.

The latest date of our final zero degree reading in the Twin Cities was March 31, in 1969.

We've probably already seen our final zero degree or colder temp of the 2016-2017 winter season.

There aren't any really cold temps in the Twin Cities forecast this week.

The coldest Twin Cities low temp next week, on NOAA's GFS model, is 11 degrees above zero on March 8:

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NOAA GFS model temps for the Twin Cities, via MeteoStar

Snow chances

Northeastern Minnesota will see some periods of snow into Sunday afternoon.

NOAA’s North American Mesoscale forecast model shows another batch of snow moving across northern Minnesota Sunday night and Monday morning:

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NOAA NAM model simulated radar Sunday night through Monday morning, via tropicaltidbits

The color chart on the lower right of the loop refers to the strength of the radar signal returning to the radar, not inches of snow!

NOAA's NAM model also shows snow moving over northern Minnesota from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon:

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NOAA NAM model simulated radar Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, via tropicaltidbits

Central Minnesota could see a rain/snow mix Monday night and Tuesday.  It looks like southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities will see periods of mostly rain Monday night and Tuesday, but the rain could be mixed with a few flakes at times.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:49 a.m. Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.