Snowiest month; next chance to shovel

Gray sky. Gray again. Then more gray.

We haven't had a mostly sunny day in the Twin Cities since Wednesday, Jan. 18. The following day was partly cloudy, and the past six days have been cloudy. Several of those six cloudy days were downright murky, with fog.

If gray is your favorite color, you're loving this cloudy weather.

Clouds will loiter over Minnesota Thursday but we could see some peeks of sun tomorrow afternoon.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

In case you've forgotten what a sunny January day looks like, here's a flashback to January 2015:

rt7126snowsun
January 2015- Deer Run Golf Club in Victoria MN, by Paul Huttner/MPR News

Snowiest month

Based on the most recent 30-year average, January is the snowiest month of the year in the Twin Cities.

The Minnesota State Climatology Office has the snowfall listing for each month:

rt0126sno
Minnesota State Climatology Office/DNR

We see an average of 12.1 inches of snow in January.

December is our second snowiest month, with 11.5 inches and March is our third snowiest month, with 10.2 inches.

So far this month, the official snowfall tally at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is 7.8 inches.

Mild weather

The Twin Cities high temperature has been 32 degrees or warmer for 11 consecutive days. That's very unusual for January, since our average high temp is 24 degrees!

We could top out at 29 or 30 degrees  Thursday, with mid 20s over central Minnesota and lower 20s in the northwest.

Minnesota will see highs in the mid to upper 20s tomorrow:

rt0127h

We'll have highs in the 20s on Saturday, then Sunday will feature 20s in southern Minnesota and teens in the north.

Monday snow

It was nice to see some fresh snow this week.

Parts of Minnesota could see another batch of snow Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Forecast System forecast model shows the potential snow pattern:

rt126fcstsfc
NOAA GFS model precipitation Monday and Tuesday, via tropicaltidbits

Northeastern Minnesota would tend to get the most snow Monday afternoon into Monday night.

Programming note

You can hear my live weather updates on Minnesota Public Radio at 7:48 a.m. Fridays, and at 7:35 a.m. and 4:35 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.