Mild weekend temps; snow Sunday night into Monday for some areas
It seemed like a long cold stretch!
The temperature at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport finally climbed above zero at 6 a.m. this Friday, after being at or below zero for 78 consecutive hours.
We've had much longer stretches of cold weather.
The Minnesota State Climatology Office has compiled an interesting list of cold weather streaks:
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Note the 186 consecutive hours at zero or below zero in 1911-1912, and they had 307 hours out of 311 hours!
Temperature trends
Saturday highs will be in the 30s in the southern half of Minnesota, with mostly 20s in the north:
The last time that we topped 32 degrees in the Twin Cities was Jan. 15.
On Sunday, highs are expected to range from the 20s in northwestern Minnesota to the lower 40s in the far southeast:
Our average high this time of year is 25 degrees in the Twin Cities metro area.
Falling temps are expected on Monday, and metro area highs could be in the teens from Tuesday through Thursday of next week.
The next storm
Southeastern Minnesota could see a bit of drizzle and freezing drizzle Saturday evening, while scattered snow showers move across northern Minnesota.
A low pressure system is expected to spread snow into northwestern Minnesota late Sunday, and snow will spread across northern and central Minnesota Sunday night and continue into Monday.
Precipitation may start as rain or a wintry mix in southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area Sunday night, then change over to all snow at some point on Monday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's North American Mesoscale forecast model shows the potential precipitation pattern Saturday afternoon through Monday evening:
The color chart to the right of the loop refers to the strength of the signal that returns to the radar, not to the amount of snow or rain.
Here is the NWS depiction of 4 inch or higher snow accumulations Sunday evening through Monday afternoon:
The NWS Grand Forks office has issued a winter storm watch that includes northwestern Minnesota counties along the Red River from noon on Sunday to noon Monday:
As we get closer to Sunday, you can check the latest forecasts from the NWS offices in the Twin Cities, Grand Forks, N.D., Sioux Falls, S.D., La Crosse, Wis and Duluth.
As always, updated weather information can be heard on the Minnesota Public Radio Network, and you’ll also see updated weather info on the MPR News live weather blog.