Arctic New Year; 40-degrees by Friday?

The National Weather Service is running out of colors for the weather maps. A slew of wintry warnings and advisories rings in 2019 across the Upper Midwest. Check out the wide variety of warnings Monday.

At least it's not locusts. Yet.

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Twin Cities NWS

Our New Year's Eve weather cacophony fades into Arctic blue background muzak New Year's Day. This cold shot is serious, but brief. Milder Pacific air blows our way by Thursday. January 2019 picks up right where our mild Minnesota December left off.

Get ready for more slushy lawns and sketchy lake ice in the next two weeks.

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Snowfall Totals 

A solid swath of 3 to 7 inches fell on the last day of 2018 across central and northeast Minnesota. You can check updated snowfall totals here.

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Snowfall totals as of 5 pm from the Twin Cities NWS.

Cold Shot

The Arctic air mass sweeping into Minnesota brings the season's coldest air so far for many locations as we move into 2019.

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Rapid warm-up

This cold shot is serious but fleeting. Pacific breezes again blow by Thursday. I think 40-degrees is a real possibility in the Twin Cities and southwest Minnesota Friday and/or Saturday.

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NOAA forecast via Weather Bell.

El Niño signal

Our mild Minnesota winter fits the El Niño pattern I've been talking about for the past few months. Another prominent feature of  El Niño winters is an active sub-tropical jet stream across the southern U.S.

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NOAA

The STJ is about to get active and deliver a series of 3 storms to the southwest in the next week. It's cold enough that snow levels are dropping to 4,000 feet near San Diego.

And heavy snow is falling in the mountains above my old weather stomping grounds in Tucson.

In El Niño winters there can be days when it's warmer in Minnesota than parts of the southwest. Snowbirds beware.