Continued frigid temperatures but diminishing winds
Temperatures fell into the teens and 20s below zero across much of northern Minnesota Tuesday morning while single digits and teens below chilled the southern half of the state. As of 7 a.m., the official thermometers read 8 below in the Twin Cities, 12 below in Rochester, 22 below in Moose Lake, 27 below in Ely and a frigid 31 below at Crane Lake.
Winds are much lighter than they were on Christmas, but with temperatures like these it does not take much wind to produce nasty wind chills.
A wind chill warning continues for northern Minnesota this morning for dangerous wind chills mostly from 25 to 50 below.
Various wind chill advisories also continue over the southern half of Minnesota and surrounding areas. Wind chills generally will range between 20 to 35 below across the southern half of Minnesota this morning.
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Actual high temperatures this afternoon are likely to remain down around 15 below in the far northern part of the state and only up to about 5 above in parts of central and southern Minnesota that have less snow on the ground. The Twin Cities area should have high temperatures around zero.
Colder Wednesday morning
The center of the ridge of arctic high pressure will be right over Minnesota late Tuesday night. That means light winds, good radiation of heat into space and very cold temperatures. Lows Wednesday morning are likely to range from around 30 below in the north to about 10 below in "milder" parts of the southern half of the state. The Twin Cities should chill to around 12 below.
Fluffy snow by Thursday
Clouds and less-cold air will moderate our temperatures some for Wednesday night. A dry, fluffy snowfall beginning Wednesday night and continuing on Thursday is likely to spread 1 to 3 inches of snow across most of the state. Both the morning and evening commutes on Thursday are likely to be slowed.
In addition to our little upcoming snow event, forecast models continue to predict an outbreak of freezing rain from Georgia into South Carolina late in the day on Thursday.
Arctic reinforcements for the weekend
We will head back into the deep freeze on Friday. Most of our state will have high temperatures below zero both Saturday and Sunday. New Year's Day will not be much milder.
Thermal relief?
Forecast models continue to indicate that the frigid air is likely to linger well into next week. Temperatures probably will not warm to seasonal normals until about a week from this coming Saturday. That would be January 6 in case you want to mark it on your shiny new 2018 calendar.