Warming trend: Subfreezing streak ends Wednesday

Our long subfreezing streak ends across most of Minnesota Wednesday.

Temperatures have been below freezing across most of Minnesota for the past week. The last time the mercury cracked the 32-degree mark in the Twin Cities was last Wednesday, Nov. 7. And that's not even close to the record of 66 days, 16 hours in the Twin Cities during the barbaric winter of 1977-78.

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Cold records MN
Cold weather records for the Twin Cities via Minnesota Climate Working Group.

40s ahead

Temperatures in the 40s will feel mighty nice this week. I still think the numbers below are conservative for Thanksgiving week. I can see three to six days at or above 40-degrees in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota over the next 10 days. We'll see.

11 14 wx2
NOAA via Weather Bell.

November out like a lamb?

The upper-air maps overnight still suggest a mild Pacific air flow into late November. As of now I still don't see any big snow events in sight. Stay tuned.

11 14 500
NOAA

Western smoke to Minnesota?

Most of the smoke from California's wildfires has been pushed westward into the Pacific Ocean this week.

But westerly winds aloft may begin to transport some of that massive plume toward the Upper Midwest over the next several days. Chances are most of the smoke will stay aloft. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's High-Resolution Rapid Refresh smoke model brings slight concentrations to near surface level in the Upper Midwest.

11 14 HRRR smoke
NOAA HRRR model near surface smoke for Thursday .

Unrelenting Santa Anas 

Red flag warnings continue for southern California Wednesday.

11 14 laxWeatherStory1

Ventura County Mountains / Los Padres National Forest-

Los Angeles County Mountains / Angeles National Forest-

752 PM PST Tue Nov 13 2018

...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 5 PM PST WEDNESDAY

FOR WIND AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY FOR THE MOUNTAINS OF LOS

ANGELES AND VENTURA COUNTIES FOR GUSTY WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITY...

* Winds...Northeast 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 50 mph are expected

to continue through this evening, with isolated gusts to 60 mph.

Winds will decrease to 15 to 25 mph with gusts 45 to 50 mph by

Wednesday morning and continue through the afternoon.

* Relative Humidity...5 to 10 percent.

* Impacts...If fire ignition occurs, conditions will be favorable

for very rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior, including

long range spotting, which would threaten life and property.

Winds should mercifully quiet down in the coming days.